Reading Notes: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
First, Edwards lists the implications of his belief that those who are wicked will “slide in due time” to hell. Edward refers to predestination in the first item on the list, claiming that these people were “always exposed to destruction.” According to Edwards, this fall could happen at any moment. In fact, he suggests that the only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because “God’s appointed time is not come.”
Edwards then discusses the “sovereign pleasure” and “mere pleasure of God” to keep a wicked person from sliding into hell. Nobody would be able to resist the power, according to Edwards. Here, we get descriptions about the enemies of God being “easily broken in pieces.” Edwards compares God’s enemies to “a worm . . . crawling on the earth.” These people “deserve” hell, Edwards says. In fact, the sentence of condemnation has already been passed. Here’s a powerful image to consider: “The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.”
Edwards then paints a picture of “the devil” who is ready to “seize” their “poor souls” at the first possible moment. Edwards describes the “old serpent gaping for them” with its “mouth wide to receive them” so the could can be “hastily swallowed up and lost.” Edwards then goes back to reminding his audience that these are “the souls of wicked men” with “hellish principles reigning.” And of course, we learn that simply because there are no signs of poor health now does not mean that one is completely safe. Additionally, Edwards delves into the idea that God offers no guarantee or promise otherwise.
We’ll return to the violent imagery associated with hell and wrath when we discuss other texts. It’s also important to note that humankind “deserved the fiery pit” simply by virtue of God being angry at them.
Before the end of the text, Edwards addresses his audience directly. He says, “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf . . .” We get some stormy imagery here too.
I also want to draw attention to Edwards’s imagery with the “wrath of God” acting like “great waters” that continue to “rise higher and higher.” The tension is mounting in this metaphor, in which “God’s vengeance” is a great flood. The things that humans depended on for “peace and safety were “nothing but thin air and empty shadows.”
Edwards also draws attention to the “everlasting” nature of God’s wrath, an “exquisite horrible misery.” He goes on to say that there is no way to determine exactly who will face this wrath, and some may be in the very room he is preaching.
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