UNiT 5

Jonathan Edwards

Learning objectives

In unit 5 you will:

— learn about the impact exercised upon American culture by the most
eminent advocate of the Great Awakening, the philosopher and
theologian Jonathan Edwards, a transitional figure nowadays widely
recognized as a majorliterary innovator;
— interpret Jonathan Edwards’s forceful sermonsasliterary masterpieces.
analyzing how the eighteenth-century preacher experimented with new
rhetorical strategies in order to elicit emotional responses from his
audience and resolve conflicts between the two sources of knowledge
th which respectively prevailed in the seventeenth and eighteenth
saith
centuries: divine revelation and human reason;
— examine how imagery maybeeffectively used to communicate ideas in
a language of sensory experience which makes readers not only
understand, but also feel;
— explore how similes and metaphors work in the writings of a highly
skilled stylist who, being very sensitive to both tropes, consciously
resorted to their manifold possibilities.

Suggestions for how to proceed

Read the introduction to study unit 5 before you approach the three extracts
from Edwards’s most famous sermon (AmericanLiterature to 1900, pages 77-
87). Then, answerthefifteen questions for self-evaluation (pages 87-89), and
check your results (page 499). When you answer the exploratory questions,
note that you will find additional help for replying to question 12 (page 90)at
the end of the study unit (page 92) as well as in the activitysuggested below. -
Unit 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS 47

Activity

Writing about metaphorical language

The purposeofthis activity is to help you analyze notonly the three similes and
the three metaphors which are mentioned in exploratory question 12, but also
many other aspects related to the metaphorical strategies used by Edwards in
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Althoughthis kind ofactivity is clearly
outlined at the end of unit 5 (American Literature to 1900, page 92), you will
accomplish your task more easily if you take into account the following basic
theoretical principles:

1. The term metaphor comes from a Greek word that means“to transfer”
or “to carry over.” Metaphor involves one word standing for another,
and becomeseffective if it vividly transfers certain aspects from the
source domain (vehicle) to the target domain (tenor).

2. At present, the term metaphoris currently being used in two main ways,
one wide and one narrow.In the wide or broad sense, the metaphorical
is contrasted with the literal, and includes the full range of figurative
interpretations of language, thatis, all figures of speech. In the narrow
sense, the metaphorical is contrasted both with the literal and with the
other tropes or figures. Apart from these two meanings — either as
representingall figurative language or as constituting just one particular
kind of figurative device among manyothers — metaphoris also being
used as a generic term for a numberofrelated tropes, such as non-literal
analogy, simile and extended comparison. This would then be a third
meaning, neither as wide noras narrowasthe other two, but in between.

3. Metaphor, in the narrow sense, is a figure of speech containing an

implicit comparison or identification of one thing with a dissimilar
thing, suggesting an analogy between them (e.g. This man is a lion).
Simile is an explicit comparison between two unlike things which is
recognizable by the use of words such as like, as, seems or appears
(e.g. This manis like a lion). Thus, these tropes differ in that the link
between the termsis implied in the case of metaphors, whereasin the
case of similes it is made through an explicit textual signal.

4. The rhetorical distinctions between metaphor(in the narrowest sense),

non-literal analogy, simile and extended comparison are by no means
48 A STUDY GUIDE FOR AMERICAN LITERATURETO 1900

accepted by everyone. In the comparison theory of metaphor, metaphor

is viewed as a sort of simile in disguise. Indeed, in many accounts of
the subject, simile is regarded as a version of metaphor, on the grounds
that every metaphor presupposes a simile. For example, according to
Aristotle (Rhetoric TI, 4), the difference between metaphorand simile
hardly exists. Like Aristotle, modern descriptivists (those who describe
rather than prescribe linguistic forms) tend to reduce simile to
metaphor, because they considerthat the differentiation (“A is B” or “A
is like B”) is not generally of front-rank importance. Yet, other scholars
strongly emphasize the differences between both tropes, arguing that
metaphorsare not simply elliptical similes, and that the latter are often
less potent and immediate than the former.

. In the confrontation between those who minimize and those who

maximize the differences between metaphorand simile, it is possible
to take a middle position. Those holding this moderate attitude
acknowledgethat the formal differences between metaphors and similes
exist, but they regard such differences as relatively unimportant and
prefer to focus on the fact that these closely related tropes convey the
same essential meaning.

. In recent decades, the bibliography on metaphor has been greatly

expanded due to a proliferation of writings by rhetoricians, linguists,
philosophers, anthropologists and psychologists. Since metaphoris an
essentially contested concept, students of the field cannot ignore the
main theoretical debates that this matter has originated in disciplines
other than their own. Thus,literary scholars cannot simply dismiss the
exciting new developments in semantics and pragmatics that have
altered the perception of what is no longer seen as a mere ornamental
figure of speech, but as a pervasive cognitive tool, and an extremely
powerful device to definereality.

The following suggestions and questions will help you organize your own
perceptions about Edwards’s use of metaphorical strategies:

1. Although the terms vehicle and tenor are not accepted by everyone,
they can be convenientto identify metaphors and understand how they
work. Alternately, if you prefer, you can refer to source (vehicle) and
target (tenor). Remember that the vehicle (or source) is the idea
conveyed by the literal meanings of the words used metaphorically,
whereasthe tenor (or target) is the idea conveyed bythe vehicle of a
Unit 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS 49

metaphor. Makea list ofall the vehicles to be found in the sermon, and
decide what their corresponding tenors may be, bearing in mind that
the vehicle of a metaphor worksat a figurative level, whereasits tenor
worksat a literal level. Always use quotation marks when youindicate
the vehicle, because you will be quoting the exact words written by
Edwards. For example:
Vehicle: “bitter and poisonousfruit” (line 6) = Tenor:sin.

2. Writing about metaphorical language implies much more than simply

identifying the metaphors and similes in any given text. It also
involves explaining how these tropes function within the text. Review
yourlist and elucidate the relationship between each vehicle andits
corresponding tenor. Start by considering the metaphor in line 6,
pointing out what features are shared by the image of some “bitter and
poisonousfruit” and the idea of “sin.” Think of what the vehicle and
the tenor of this metaphor have in common soas to account for the
author’s implicit comparison.

3. Note how carefully Edwards explains the implications of the

expression “slippery places,” which is a metaphor he draws from Psalm
73.18 in order to interpret the phrase “Their foot shall slide in due time”
(Deuteronomy 32.35). Describe to what extent the author exploits the
possibilities of this biblical metaphorinthe first part of his sermon, and
examine how he analyzes the decoding processthat his audience must
undertake in order to understand his message.

4. Justify why Edwards evokes the idea of hell by resorting to the

following vehicles (or source domains): “that lake of burning
brimstone”(line 41), “the dreadful pit” (line 42), “the bottomless gulf”
(line 85), “a great furnace” (line 128), “a wide and bottomless pit”
(line 129).

5. Comment on the vehicles employed by Edwardsto referto the sinners

in a dehumanizing way, paying particular attention to his desire to
provoke feelings of disgust by comparing them with animals which
most people find repulsive.

6. Analyze the phrase “you would be like the chaff of the summer
threshing floor” (lines 76-77), and consider the special impactthat this
simile must have had on Edwards’s rural audience, which wasfamiliar
with the imageof the dust of the grain being driven from the crushing-
50 A STUDY GUIDE FOR AMERICAN LITERATURETO 1900

floor by the wind. Note that in the Bible there are numerousreferences
to the wicked being driven away by God asif they were chaff swept
away by the wind (Psalm 1:4; Psalm 68:2; Isaiah 17:13; Daniel 2:35;
Hosea 6:4).

. Some metaphors are simple, but in the process of interpreting a

creative metaphor, several possibilities might be called to mind. In
other words, you can interpret an original or common metaphorin
different ways, depending on your inferential process and the
associations you make. Examine what you deem the mostinteresting
metaphoror simile in Edwards’s sermon, and discussits ideological
implications.

. Metaphors can be usedin a different manner, so that their effects can

be surprising, frightening, moving, sad, disturbing, shocking,
humorous, or even grotesque. What are the main effects of Edwards’s
metaphors? Discuss the impact that his often far-fetched metaphors
can have on modern readers.

Authors may use a simile so as to make a comparison more explicit,

and then a metaphorlinkedto it. They mayalso reverse the order, and
start with a metaphor followed by a simile. For instance, the simile to
be found in the phrase “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy
as lead” (line 53) turns into the metaphor“youare a burden”(line 60).
Can you find any other examples of this combination or linkage of
metaphor and simile in Edwards’s sermon?

10. Your reflection on metaphor should lead you to an awarenessof the

tone of the text in which this trope appears. Examine howthe concept
of tone is related to the metaphorical structure of lines 112-18 of
Edwards’s sermon, and explain how tone and metaphoroperate in this
passage to control your responseas a reader.

Bibliography

Primary sources:

Edwards, Jonathan. The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Ed. Perry Miller. New
Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1957-89.
 UNIT 5
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

Jonathan Edwards wasa highly educated philosopher and theologian whose

decisive impact on the development of American culture is widely recognized.
Since the middle of the twentieth century he has also been acknowledgedas a
major figure in the canon of Americanletters by critics who have analysed his
sermons beyondtheir religious scope, as genuine masterpieces of literary
art. Though most of Edwards’s works were never meant for publication,
nearly 1,250 of his sermons have survived,and leaving aside his longtreatises,
they constitute the basis upon whichtheartistic renown ofthis prolific writer
has been established. He has often been labelled “the last great Puritan,” and
wasindeed a convinced defender of orthodox Calvinism, an apologist who
devoted himself to restoring the church to its original Puritan ideal. But, in
spite of his ideological conservatism, Edwardswasa literary innovator who
experimented within and beyond thestylistic conventions of his age. His
main contributionto literature lies in his brilliant use of some new rhetorical
strategies by which he managedto “awaken” audiences that were no longer
interested in the ornamented sermonsof the seventeenth century and remained
unimpressed by the simplified form of those of the eighteenth century.
Born in East Windsor, a new settlement in the Connecticut River valley,
Jonathan Edwardswasa child prodigy raised in a rigid Puritan environmentat
a time when muchof the fervour of the first generation of immigrants had
been lost, and the church ministry no longerretained its social and political
supremacy. His father, Timothy Edwards, a graduate of Harvard, was the
minister of East Windsor’s Congregationalist church. His maternal
grandfather, the Reverend Solomon Stoddard, wasthe prestigious minister of
the much larger congregation of Northampton (Massachusetts) which had
become, in fact, the largest outside of Boston. At the age of thirteen Jonathan
Edwards was admitted to the Collegiate School of Connecticut (later called
Yale College), where he learnt Latin, Greek, and Hebrew,and graduated four
78 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

Jonathan Edwards

years later at the head of his class. He stayed to read Theology until 1722, and
studied the worksofall the great Puritan divines not only in order to form his
mind but also to modelhis life. As he would later recall, he made seeking his
salvation the main business of his life, although he never neglected his
intellectual growth.
While he wasa studentat Yale, the College received a substantial donation
of books which introduced him to the worksof Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and
John Locke (1632-1704). As Edwards read their writings with great interest
and pleasure, he drew upon them to adopt whatever aspects he considered
useful to articulate his own thoughts and rejected those incompatible with his
own system of beliefs. Newton had venerated the Bible and accepted its
account of Creation; furthermore, he had expressed a strong sense of God’s
providential role in nature. Thus, Newton’s physics helped young Edwards to
understand how the harmonious working of the universe reflected the
magnificence of God. Edwards had no objections to most of Newtonian
science, including his theory of universal gravitational attraction, which many
contemporaries found completely unintelligible. From Locke he borrowed the
concept that ideas are generated by sense impressions, that the intellect and the
will act synchronically, and that affections are not in conflict with
understanding but are a “vigorous exercise” of the will. In short, Edwards was
immersed in the empiricism andrationalism of his time, which he adapted to
his owntheories of biblical revelation, and used his synthesis to repudiate the
critique launched by the Deists and other detractors of the Puritans. Whereas
UNIT 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS(1703-1758) 79

the Deists demandeda purely rational religion, Edwards was opposedto their
idea that one is able to reach a true knowledge of God by reason alone,
without the support of tradition. Always seeking to reconcile old piety with the
new scientific and philosophical trends of his time, Edwards attempted to
resolve the suggested conflict between human reason and divine revelation by
maintaining that religious knowledgecould berational.
When Edwards graduated from theologically conservative Yale, he became
the pastor of a small Presbyterian church (more hierarchical in government
than the Congregationalist churches of his father and grandfather) in New
York City. He returned to Yale to work as a tutor of the College from 1724
until 1726, and then went back to the ministry. He becameassistant pastor to
his maternal grandfather in the town of Northampton. When the Reverend
Solomon Stoddard died in 1729, his grandson was named his successor
because at the age of twenty-six he was already recognized as a remarkable
preacher. Eventually, after twenty-three years of ministry, Edwards was
dismissed from his pastorate basically because his parishioners rejected his
abolishment of Stoddard’s reforms.
Asthe pastor of the Northampton congregation, Jonathan Edwardstried to
suppress someofthe liberal innovations introduced by his grandfather, one of
the most influential figures in New England. If we used the current
terminology of our time, Stoddard would be labelled “liberal” and his
grandson “conservative.” The Reverend Solomon Stoddard believed that
salvation depended not only on God’s grace, but also on individual moral
effort. By contrast, Jonathan Edwards defended the Calvinist tenet of salvation
only by God’s free and irresistible gift of grace. Stoddard accepted the
‘Halfway Covenant” whereas Edwardsopposedit, being a firm supporter of
the “Covenant” theology. In practical terms, this meant that Stoddard
abolished the requirement that people profess an experience of conversion
before being accepted as full members of the church; furthermore, he opened
the sacrament of communionto all baptized persons who wishedto convert,
since he thought that communion might be a meansof converting to belief.
Edwards attempted to impose uponhis congregationstricter qualifications for
admission to the sacraments. He required a public profession of conversion
before full admission to the church, and restricted the sacrament of
communion only to those who had been converted. His position on the
“Halfway Covenant” eventually cost him his pulpit in Northampton. On June
22, 1750 his congregation voted for his dismissal (by a vote of two hundred to
twenty), and after delivering his Farewell Sermon, he stepped down.
With his eleven children, Edwards remained for some time in Northampton
and refused to return to the ministry anywhere else. Finally, in 1751 he
accepted a position as missionary to the several hundred Housatonic Indians
80 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

(Mohican and Mohawk)andaspastor of the twelve white families resident in

the little frontier hamlet of Stockbridge, on the western border of
Massachusetts. He hoped to find leisure to concentrate on his writings, and
although he spent muchtime and effort struggling against the greed of the
administrators of the funds designated for the Native People, he managed to
compose the long treatises on which his renown as a theologian and
philosopherchiefly rests. In 1757, he was appointed president of the College
of New Jersey at Nassau Hall (now Princeton University), a post he accepted
on the advice of his friends and with somereluctance on his part. He died
shortly after, of smallpox, the result of a defective inoculation to prevent
infection. Thus, Edwards’s career had three phases: a period of relative
obscurity, followed by great popularity (which ended with the violent rejection
of 1750) and seven last extremely fruitful years in which he produced some of
his greatest writings.
Jonathan Edwardsis considered the most eminent advocate of the “Great
Awakening,” a wave of exaltation intended to “awaken” dormantreligious
feelings. It began in New England in 1734 and involved most Colonies,
lasting in some places until the late 1740s, when it started to dwindle. The
leader of the “Great Awakening” was the itinerant evangelical minister
Reverend George Whitefield, a young English preacher who converted
thousands of people on his tour of the Colonies between 1739 and 1740.
This movementof spiritual revival tried to restore the religious intensity of the
seventeenth-century Puritans, opposing both the gradual process of
secularization and the liberal forms within Christianity which were springing
up in New England. The “Great Awakening” not only rekindled but also
recast Calvinism because it brought some changes in Puritan theology.
In particular, it emphasized the individual experience of conversion or
regeneration, whose authenticity was thought to be revealed by each
individual’s own intense emotional conviction. By stressing the emotional side
of religion, this spiritual movement madereligion more popular, but it soon
developed into a dangerous frenzy. Some ministers denounced the “Great
Awakening”as heresy, while other ministers who hadinitially supported this
revival eventually realised that it was making them lose control of their
parishioners, dangerously attracted by those proclaiming visions and carrying
on chaotic religious discussions. Stimulated by enthusiastic preachers,
formerly serene audiences would have outbursts of religious fervour, crying,
weeping and goinginto fits. Evidence against the “Great Awakening” included
accounts of “bodily tremors,” “convulsions and distortions,” the product of the
“deluded imaginations” of some fanatics. Though Edwards wasone of the
most important apologists who defended the “Great Awakening” from its
enemies, he was also one of its most perceptive critics as well. He soughtto
UNIT 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS(1703-1758) 81

curb excesses, warning people of the dangers of extremism, and helping

believers to distinguish between true and false or imagined worksof grace,
rather than accepting any strange experience as a sure sign of the Spirit’s
converting work. Edwards’s own methodsof preaching were rather temperate
compared to those of other “awakeners,” such as the Reverend George
Whitefield, and the Americans Gilbert Tennent (a Presbyterian from New
Jersey) and James Davenport (a Congregationalist minister from Long Island
who claimed to have the ability to distinguish who was amongthe elect of
God). Edwards’s forceful sermons had an enormous impact on manyofhis
audiences, but he read them quietly, from a dignified stance rather than
shouting from the pulpit.
Edwards’s both nuanced support and subtle criticism of the “Great
Awakening” are expressed in his publications Some Thoughts Concerning
the Present Revival of Religion (1742) and Treatise Concerning Religious
Affections (1746). Nevertheless, his popular reputation nowadaysrests almost
exclusively on one single sermon: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.It is
the author’s best-known sermon, the literary monumentof the “Great
Awakening,” and the most famous in Americanliterature. The only fact that
many people today know about Jonathan Edwardsis that he preached a
sermonbearing that name; not so many have actually ever read its contents. It
has becomethe classic of “hell-fire and brimstone” preaching, although our
contemporary literary critics argue that this frequently caricaturized specimen
is not even an example of the genre. Indeed, the pictures of hell-fire are
neither its most vivid nor its most numerous images, since they constitute not
more than a quarterofthe total of figures. The focus of the sermon is not on
hell, but on the sinner whois dangling over the abyss, suspended on a slender
thread, whenthereis still time to repent and be saved from plunging into
eternal agony. The key image of the sermonis not that of the lake of burning
brimstone, but that of the spider.
There was no record of a deep impact on the congregation when Edwards
read Sinners to his own parishioners in Northampton and at two other places.
Nevertheless, there was a commotion when the preacher delivered it again in
Enfield, a town about thirty miles south of Northampton, on Sunday,July 8,
1741. Until then, the “unawakened” audience of Enfield had resisted the
revivalism which was sweeping Connecticut. But finally, with this sermon,
Edwards achieved his goal of moving the people of Enfield toward the
experience of conversion and public testimonyoftheir faith. In other words,
he had not delivered Sinners as a mere attempt at improving people’s
behaviour, but in order to produce an impression upon their minds. He wanted
to touch emotional chords and provoke an immediate reaction in the form of a
sudden conversion to be proclaimed in front of the whole congregation. His
82 AMERICAN LITERATURETO 1900

knowledge of human psychology had led him to believe that conversion

could be experienced through the senses, and not only through reason;
therefore, he communicatedhis ideas in a language of sensory experience so
as to make his audience not only understand but also feel. The essential
imagery that contributes to the success of this sermon conveysthe senseofthe
suspension of the sinner, and is kinesthetic (pertaining to the sense of
movementand bodily effort), rather than merely visual.
Edwards defended the ministers who were being blamed for terrifying
audiences because he wassincerely convinced that such ministers had the duty
to warn sinners so that they would understandtheir terrifying state, rather than
comfort them. Modern readers of Sinners are notlikely to beterrified, but tend
to pay particular attention both to the innovative imagery and to the rhetorical
strategies mounted by Edwards whentrying to give a sense of immediacy to
imagesthat were very familiar in his time andto bring newlife into long-dead
metaphors. For those interested in rhetoric as a meansofeliciting emotional
responses, this sermon is an outstanding example of eloquence partly because
it is filled with an increasing tension and suspense.
Being a consummate and sophisticated rhetorician, Edwards was well
aware of the importance of structure in oratory. Sinners follows the typical
tripartite structure of a Puritan sermon: Text, Doctrine and Application. It
starts with the Text, that is, a biblical quotation, and opensasbriefly as
possible with an explication to clarify its meaning in its context. In the second
part, the Doctrine is initially expressed in the form of a concise statement
which formulates the main thesis of the entire sermon: “‘There is nothing that
keeps wicked men at any one momentoutof hell, but the mere pleasure of
God.” Then, the Doctrine is expoundedas a series of ten considerations to
demonstrate its truth; such reasons are arranged as numbered points which
appear in logical order. Edwards proceeds with a tight and crushinglogic, the
product of a rigorously analytical mind. The Doctrine is followed by the
third part of the sermon, the “Application,” consisting of a series of uses
whichtry to render abstract principles as concrete as possible by applying
them to the practicalaffairs of life. At the end of the sermonthere is a simple
conclusion which avoids anyflourish.

Wewill read three extracts from Sinners, which represent only about one
~ fourth of the whole sermon. Thefirst passage in our selection is from the
first two parts of the sermon,thatis, the Text and the Doctrinal sections. The |
second passage weare going to read is from the beginning of the
Application section. The third passage, which consists of one last |
paragraph, is the CBpclusion of the sermon. :
UNIT 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS(1703-1758) 83

From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD

Deuteronomy 32.35
Their foot shall slide in due time. !

In this verse is threatened? the vengeance of God on the wicked

unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under
the means of grace;> but who, notwithstanding* all God’s wonderful works
towards them, remained (as in verse 28°) void of counsel,® having no
understanding in them. Underall the cultivations of heaven, they brought 5
forth bitter and poisonousfruit; as in the two verses next precedingthetext.’
The expression I have chosen for mytext, “Their foot shall slide in due
time,” seems to imply the following doings, relating to the punishment and
destruction to which these wickedIsraelites were exposed.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or 10
walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the
manneroftheir destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot
sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73.18: “Surely thou didst set them in
slippery places; thou castedst them downinto destruction.”
2. It implies that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected 15
destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every momentliableto fall, he
cannot foresee one moment whetherhe shall stand orfall the next; and when he
does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm
73.18-19: “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them
downinto destruction: How are they brought into desolation as ina moment!” 20
3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves,
without being thrown downbythe hand of another; as he that stands or walks
on slippery ground needsnothing but his own weight to throw him down.

“To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense;their foot shall slide in due time: for the
day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them makehaste.”
Exposed.
win

For most Puritans “means of grace” are the preaching of the word of God and the
administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
4 In spite of.
> “They are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them”
(Deuteronomy 32:28).
© Intention or resolution.
7 “Fortheir vine is of the vine of Sodom,and the fields of Gomorrah:their grapes are grapes
of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wineis the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom
of asps” (Deuteronomy 32:32-33).
 84 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

4. That the reason whytheyare notfallen already, and do notfall now,is

25 only that God’s appointed time is not come. Forit is said, that when that due
time, or appointed time comes, their footshall slide. Then they shall be left to
fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in
these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then at that very
instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on suchslippery
30 declining ground, on the edge ofa pit, he cannot stand alone, whenheis let go
he immediately falls andislost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist uponis this.
“There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one momentoutofhell, but
the mere pleasure of God.” By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign
35 pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered® by no
mannerofdifficulty, any more than if nothing else but God’s mere will had in
the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any handin the preservation of
wicked men one moment. [...]

APPLICATION

Theuse of this awful? subject may be for awakening unconverted persons

in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you
that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone,!°
is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames
of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have
nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of, there is nothing between
45 you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that
holds you up.
You probably are not sensible" of this; you find you are kept outof hell,
but do not see the hand of Godin it; but look at other things, as the good state
of your bodily constitution, your care of your ownlife, and the means you use
50 for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should
withdraw his hand, they would avail!* no more to keep you from falling,
than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspendedin it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend
downwards with great weight and pressure towardshell; and if God should let
55 you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the

8 Restrained; prevented.
° Awesome; causing respect combined with fear.
10 Sulphur.
11 Aware.
2 Beofuse; help.
UNIT 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS(1703-1758) 85

bottomless gulf,!* and your healthy constitution, and your own care and
prudence, and best contrivance,"4 and all your righteousness > would have no
more influence to uphold you and keep you outof hell, than a spider’s web
would haveto stop a falling rock.'® Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of
God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burdentoit; the
creation groans with you; the creature is made subjectto the bondage!” of your
corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give
you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth doesnot willingly yield her increase
to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be
acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the 65
flame of life in your vitals,'® while you spend yourlife in the service of
God’s enemies. God’s creatures are good, and were made for men to serve
God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan
when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and
end. And the world would spew”? you out, were it not for the sovereign hand 70
of him whohath subjected it in hope. There are black clouds of God’s wrath
now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with
thunder; and wereit not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately
burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God,for the present, stays his
rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would 75
come like a whirlwind,”° and you would be like the chaff?’ of the summer
threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammedfor the present; they
increase more and more, andrise higher andhigher,till an outlet is given; and
the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when 80
onceit is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not
been executed hitherto; the floods of God’s vengeance have been withheld;
but your guilt in the mean timeis constantly increasing, and you are every day
treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing” more
and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that 85
holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go
3 Abyss.
'4 Ingeniousplan.
'5 Piety; saintliness; religiousness.
16 During the early 1720s Edwards conducteda detailed investigation into the way spiders
madetheir webs.
17 Slavery; servitude.
18 Vital organs or parts of the body (esp. the lungs, heart and brain).
9 Vomit.
Windstorm; cyclone.
21 The husks of wheat or other grain separated in threshing. Refuse; waste; trash.
22 Growing.
 86 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would
immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of
God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you
with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand timesgreater
than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest,
sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready onthestring,
and justice bends the arrow at yourheart,and strains the bow,andit is nothing
95 but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise
or obligationat all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk
with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of
heart, by the mighty powerof the Spirit of God upon yoursouls; all you that
were never born again, and made newcreatures, and raised from being dead in
100 sin, to a state of new, and before altogether inexperiencedlight andlife, are in
the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed yourlife in
manythings, and may havehadreligious affections, and may keep up a form
of religion in your families and closets,” and in the house of God,it is nothing
but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowedup in
105 everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may nowbeofthe truth of
whatyou hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are
gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with
them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected
nothing ofit, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now theysee, that
110 those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but
thin air and empty shadows.
The Godthat holds you overthe pit of hell, much as one holdsa spider,or
some loathsomeinsect overthe fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked:
his wrath towards you burnslike fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing
15 else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in
his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the
most hateful venomousserpentis in ours. You have offended him infinitely
more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yetit is nothing but his
hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be
120 ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was
suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And
there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell
since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand hasheld you up. Thereis
no other reason to be given why you have not goneto hell, since you havesat
125 here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked

3 Studies; places of meditation.

UNIT 5: JONATHAN-EDWARDS(1703-1758) 87

mannerof attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothingelse thatis to be

given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop downintohell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger youare in: it is a great furnace of
wrath, a wide and bottomlesspit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held
over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much 130
against you, as against many of the damnedin hell. You hang by a slender
thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every
momentto singeit,“ and burn it asunder;”> and you have nointerest in any
Mediator, and nothingto lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the
flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, 135
nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. [...]
[...]
Therefore, let every onethat is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the
wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging
overa great part of this congregation: Let every one fly out of Sodom: “Haste
and escape for yourlives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest 140
you be consumed.’”6

1. The biblical quotation “Their foot shall slide in due time” is an example of
a. literal language.
b. figurative language.
c. ironic description.
d. colloquial diction.

2. The statement “they brought forth bitter and poisonousfruit” is best

described as which of the following?
a. A paradoxical statement.
b. A humorously offered truism.
c. A controlling metaphor.
d. Anirrelevant afterthought.

4 Burn off the tip of the thread.

5 Apart; into pieces.
© Genesis 19:17. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a rain of fire and sulphur
(Genesis 19:28).
88 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

In the opening paragraphsof the sermon,the recurrent “they” refers to

a. the Puritans.
b. the preacher’s audience.
c. sinners in general.
d. the wickedIsraelites.
. The four implications of the biblical text are unified by metaphorical
references pertaining to aspects of
a. motion.
b. stillness.
c. time.
d. production.
Theact of slipping is described as havingall of the following characteristics
except being
a. unexpected.
b. controllable.
c. sudden.
d. unpredictable.
The “Application” section begins with
a. an extended metaphor.
b. a paradoxical statement.
c. a statement of purpose.
d. an ironic remark.

. The imageof the spider involvesall of the following except the idea of
a. frailty.
b. safety.
c. physical suspension.
d. disgust.

The statement “his wrath towards you burns like fire” is best described as
whichofthe following?
a. Aconventional simile.
b. A strange metaphor.
c. A pun.
d. An apostrophe.

Throughout this sermon the sinner is compared to all of the following

animals except
UNIT 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS(1703-1758) 89

. an insect.
2078

. a spider.
a rat.
. a snake.

10. This sermon addressesall of the following notions except

a. the innate depravity of humankind,that is, human sinfulness.
b, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, that is, the notion thatall beings
depend onthe will of their Creator.
c. the necessity of conversion.
d. the doubts that the audience might have aboutthereality of hell.

. State briefly the main theme andthesis of this sermon.

. The author usedterrifying imagery in this and other sermons of the same
period. Makea list of the images that may have frightened Edwards’s
audience, and arrange them thematically into groups. Remember the
concept of image: the writer likens an inward state or experience to
something outward which conveys the same experience.

Although other sermonsillustrate much better Edwards’s attitude to nature

and his sensitivity to its beauty, analyse the images from the natural world
that are usedin the context of this sermon. Take into account that Edwards
includes nature as a source of revelation, on the groundsthat the created
world provides ample evidence of God’s powerand glory.

Edwards is said to have invented a “language of sensory experiencethat

stirred the passions of his country congregation.” Give three examples of
the preacher's appeal to the senses.
- How successfully do the images work in this sermon? Are they all
artistically effective?

Note the author's frequent use of the word “wrath” and analyseit in each
context, taking into account that some of the moststriking images in the
sermonare those whichdisplay the fearful wrath of God.

Analyse the biblical language of this sermon, paying particularattention to

the author's transformation of his sources. Note how he usesallusion much
 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

more often than quotation.

It has been observed that the preacher of this sermon expresses an
increasing concern for his audience. Do you agree?

Professor J.A. Leo Lemay, a great scholar of American colonial literature,

has postulated that muchof the escalating emotional appealof Sinnersis
due to its increasing immediacy of: a) personal reference (by shifting
from they to we to you), b) time (by shifting from the past tense to the
present, and by heightening the effect with a repetitive now) and c) place
(by shifting from Israel to here). Analyse the sermonin the light of this
theory.

10. This sermon slowly builds up towards a climax. Look at the text and
indicate where the momentofgreatest tension is.

11. In other sermons, Edwards movingly tried to portray God’s love. Analyse the
author’s concept of God in this sermon.

12. Both similes and metaphors are figures of speech in which one thing is
described in the terms of another, or somethingis likened to something else.
The only difference between these twofigures is that in a simile there is an
explicit comparison (recognizable by the use of the words “like” or “as”),
whereas in a metaphor the comparisonis implicit. Analyse in their context
the following similes:
— your destruction would comelike a whirlwind
— you would belike the chaff of the summerthreshing floor
— the wrath of Godis like great waters that are dammed
and the following metaphorsof hell:
— that lake of burning brimstone
— the dreadful pit
— the bottomless gulf.

13. According to Cicero, oratory should instruct, convince and excite the
reader. To what extent do you think that Edwards achieved such goals in
front of his audience? Note that Edwards has been considered a master at
the art of persuading.

14. Edwards wasnot only a manoffaith with strong religious feelings, but also
a man of thought. He argued for a synthesis of faith and reason. What
features of this sermon reveal that its author lived in the “Age of Reason”?
Notice not only his tendency to explain rationally (which implies a faith in
humanability to reason logically), but also his recurrent use of the word
UNIT 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS(1703-1758) 91

“reason” throughout the sermon.

15. According to Benjamin Trumbull, Edwards delivered this sermonin a level
voice but, in spite of his calmness, “there was such a breathing of distress,
and weeping, that the preacher was obliged to speak to the people and
desire silence, that he might be heard” (A Complete History of Connecticut).
In the revival of 1741-42, practically the whole adult population of
Northampton wasbroughtinto the church. How effective do you think this
sermon would beif it was delivered nowadays? Is there anything in it that
may impress modern readers? Can youfind any traces of what some modern
readers maycall “grotesque harshness”? Why do you think that this sermon
has instigated so manydismissive caricaturesofits author?

SINNER S&S.
_ In the Hands of an

Angry GOD.
ASERMON
Preached at Enfiell, Faly Sth 19 4 1
Ata Tiene of great Awsloenings ; and aended wah
remaricable Lmperfions on many of the Hearers.

| By Jonathan Edwards, A.M.

- Ballor of the Oeorch of Conist in Nerthaageas,

Awe ig i 5 haeeB im Hot, Ht fin Hand

fede there, thvegd Hyclowt op ty Haaren, themes it F
aii

fiw doce. Aad nhongh they Hey themfitens im ahs Tie

Caneel, 1 wetld fooond tedr them pet bees, cel
they Be adfm ny Sigan rr Revoatthe Son, vvmce
evdrmnand thy Sanjeat, andte feel bee thew,

BOSTON: Frintedand Soll by SKvannaso ;

and T, Gants. in Queon-Street over agninit the
Prifon. TTat

The sermonf Jonathan Edwards helped fol the . : Title page of Sinners in the Hands
Great Aedkering, ~— of'an Angry God.
92 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

How do metaphors and similes actually work?

~The essence of both metaphors and similes is understanding one kind of

- thing in terms of another, that is, perceiving the similarity of dissimilar
|things. Metaphors and similes are not merely ornamental. comparisons,
» but have a cognitive import; in other words, they have the powerto define -
reality by highlighting some of its features and hiding others. Creative
»-similes and metaphors extend people’s knowledge into the unknown.
Whether you write about metaphors or similes, there is a useful
distinction that can help you to explain how they work:
* the vehicle is the idea conveyed bytheliteral meanings of the words
used metaphorically :
e the tenoris the idea conveyed bythe vehicle.
_ For instance, in the first paragraph of his sermon, Edwards spoke about
“bitter and poisonousfruit” (the vehicle) to make his audience understand
the nature of sin (the tenor). Later on, he compared the sinner (the tenor) to
a spider (the vehicle). Other vehicles employed by Edwardsto refer to the |
sinner are: “some loathsome insect” and “the most hateful venomous |
serpent.” Apart from emphasizing feelings of disgust by referring to animals |
which are considered repulsive by most people, the preacher conveyed |
other negative aspects of the sinner with a vehicle that was very familiar to —
his rural audience: “the chaff of the summerthreshing floor.”
_. Making a list of all the vehicles used to convey each tenor may help you.
_to begin your analysis of the figurative language of a given text. Here is an
example of how youcanstart a list of the vehicles which Jonathan Edwards-
employedin order to explain to his audience his own perception of hell. -
You mayapply this simple method to other tenors.evoked throughout the —
sermon(e.g. the wrath of God).

Tenor:
Hell

Vehicles:
¢ that lake of burning brimstone
the dreadful pit
the bottomless gulf
a great furnace
a wide and bottomlesspit
92 AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

How do metaphors and similes actually work?

_ The essence of both metaphors and similes is understanding one kind of |

thing in terms of another, that is, perceiving the similarity of dissimilar.
things. Metaphors and similes are not merely ornamental comparisons,
} but have a cognitive import; in other words, they have the powerto define
_feality by highlighting some of its features and hiding others. Creative
-similes and metaphors extend people’s knowledge into the unknown.
Whether you write about metaphors or similes, there is a useful
distinction that can help you to explain how they work:
¢ the vehicle is the idea conveyedby theliteral meanings of the words
used metaphorically
e the tenoris the idea conveyed by the vehicle.
_For instance, in the first paragraph of his sermon, Edwards spoke about —
“bitter and poisonousfruit” (the vehicle) to make his audience understand
the nature of sin (the tenor). Later on, he compared the sinner (the tenor) to
a spider (the vehicle). Other vehicles employed by Edwardsto refer to the |
sinner are: “some loathsome insect” and “the most hateful venomous |
serpent.” Apart from emphasizing feelings of disgust by referring to animals —
which are considered repulsive by most people, the preacher conveyed |
other negative aspects of the sinner with a vehicle that was very familiar to -
his rural audience: “the chaff of the summerthreshing floor.” -
Makinga list of all the vehicles used to convey each tenor may help you ~
|to begin your analysis ofthe figurative language of a given text. Here is an
| example of how youcanstart a list of the vehicles which Jonathan Edwards
employed in order to explain to his audience his own perception of hell. -
| You mayapply this simple method to other tenors evoked throughout the.
|sermon(e.g. the wrath of God).

Tenor:
Hell

Vehicles:
¢ that lake of burning brimstone
the dreadful pit
the bottomless gulf
a great furnace
a wide and bottomlesspit