For the majority of Edwards's sermon, the tone is indeed vexed. He uses shocking imagery to try to convince his audience to turn from their sinful ways and follow Christ. One of the most vivid images in the sermon is this one:
The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing 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 so abominable in his Eyes as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours....and yet 'tis nothing but his Hand that holds you from falling into the Fire every Moment: 'Tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to Hell the last Night; that you was suffer'd 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 has held you up.
Edwards tries to lead his listeners to Salvation by forcing them to consider the dangers of Hell; he wants them to recognize the omniscient powers of God and realize that their lives could end at any moment. Edwards's ultimate goal is to shock his audience into seeing the truth of their precarious lives and to save them from eternal damnation. His tone is harsh, but he considers the implications of failing to get this message across worthy of the shock and vexation.
However, Edwards doesn't fill the audience with fear and then dismiss them. Right at the end, he approaches them with a message of hope, bringing the love of God to fill the places of fear. He tells them that they "have now an extraordinary Opportunity" to repent and follow Christ and that they can "become the holy and happy Children of the King of Kings." He ends with one final image of hope:
Therefore let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the Wrath to come.
Though Edwards does not deviate from his core proposition that God's wrath will fall on sinners, he does provide a contrasting image of flying into freedom and eternal love with the decision to accept Christ. Providing his audience with images of hope makes the sermon not simply a condemnation but allows for a relatable path into a loving relationship with God.
The tone noticeably changes toward the end of Edwards's sermon because he wants to send his congregation home with some hope in their hearts. For most of the sermon, Edwards has scared the living daylights out of his audience, driving home with full force the message that God can consign sinners to hell any time he wants. He paints in lurid detail just what kind of exquisite torments sinners can expect should God see fit to confine them to the fiery depths of hell. It's no wonder that under such a sustained assault of hellfire and brimstone, many members of the audience passed out in fear.
However, Edwards doesn't just want to put the fear of God into his listeners. He also wants them to change their ways. That's why, toward the end of this speech, he holds out the hope of redemption for his audience—if only they will turn from a life of sin and return to the path of righteousness. Edwards wants his listeners to be born-again: to heed the Word of God. Only then will it be possible for them to escape Sodom and "escape to the mountain, lest [they] be consumed."
The majority of Edwards's sermon has a vexed, or perhaps troubled, tone as the Puritan minister preaches at length about God's displeasure with sinners. Edwards uses words such as "destruction" and phrases such as "cast into hell" to describe the condition of those who are out of favor with God. Edwards also uses imagery to emphasize the horrors that await those who will not be saved; they are "as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind" and will be cast into hell where "the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them."
Late in the sermon Edwards modifies his tone to urge people who desire salvation to change their ways. He speaks of an "extraordinary opportunity" on a day "wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open," waiting to receive them and wash away their sin. Edwards describes those who "are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them" in profound contrast to how he berates his listeners for the majority of the sermon. Perhaps, then, the congregation who heard the sermon found this part of his message something that they could relate to; there was still time for them to do something to help themselves avoid damnation.
http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/Sinners.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment