Sins
Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” captures the intensity of the Great Awakening. He implies during the sermon that if the “natural men” don’t change their ways, undergo conversions, they undoubtedly will endure the “wrath of God.” He preaches to them with an urgent and accusatory tone. Combing this with his diction, metaphors, and pace he instills fear into the “sinners” and attempts to persuade them to redeem themselves.
Edward’s negative diction plays a key role in his persuasive sermon. His active verbs with negative connotations assist the reader to understand the seriousness of the situation. They are
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Instead of the “wrath of God” He is now a compassionate God with “the door of mercy wide open” for them. They will be “miserable” in the “hot” flames of the “fiery pit.
Edward’s complex sentence structure emphasizes the horrible state of hell during their “everlasting destruction. He illustrates hell as a “bottomless pit” to emphasize the eternity they are going to spend there. The flames are “ready to receive them; the flame do now rage and glow. ” He describes this “bottomless pit” with many details separated by semicolons. He supports his idea by explaining thousands from the “east, west, north, and south” have already undergone this conversion and persuades them to jump on the band wagon and join the “feasting”, “rejoicing”, and “singing.
At the end, Edward’s tone shifts to compassionate and hopeful.
His choices of metaphors belittle and dehumanize these people. ” His many adjectives consist of negative connotations while describing the sufferings the unsaved will endure. “hanging” by a thread in which it is easy for God to simply “cast his enemies down to hell. If they don’t take this “extraordinary opportunity” to convert now, they may never get the chance again...
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