Throughout the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” the author, Jonathan Edwards, uses his tone and diction to emphasize how the Puritans deserve to go to Hell, but not because the Lord is cruel, but because of their own doings to him.
This is first prevalent when Edwards says “…you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes then the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours” (Edwards 1). When Edwards tells the church this description of God’s view on them in his early part of the sermon to explain how God sees them in their sin, he wants the people of the church to understand that God’s strong anger is pointed at them because of themselves. Now, God’s view on the Puritans that Edward speaks on is considered an accurate description to the Puritans as they worship God, so God’s view of them is true. This implements the diction hinted to described paints them in a horrible picture. Abominable is used to describe someone that causes hatred toward themselves. So, the people, as the sinners they are, are causing God’s hatred towards them. It points out that the hatred he has is even greater than his hate towards the most hateful serpent. The serpent, to the Puritans, is a symbol of Satan himself. This all shows that the people themselves cause the hatred of God towards themselves, and it is so strong that God hates them more than Satan himself. As the text leads on, Edward moves to explain what it is the people of the church deserve.
Not only that but says that they deserve this because of their own provoking towards God: “There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes…” (Edwards 1). Edward points out that the Puritans should already be in Hell. There is no reason for them to have woken up in the world and not in Hell. Edward says that the people had provoked the Lord in some way. When someone has provoked someone else, they themselves have caused the irritation and annoyance one feels toward them. The evidence implies that because of their provoking towards God, assuming with sin, they the people deserve to go to Hell and that it would be their own fault.
Edwards continues through the sermon highlighting God’s anger before he points back again that the powerful anger God has towards the Puritans is caused by themselves, “…God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you…” (Edwards 1). The diction put into the ways used to point out that the sinners provoked the Lord’s anger, so his wrath towards them is their own fault. So now, in return for provoking him, his wrath is now incensed. Incensed is a powerful piece of diction Edward chose to use; it refers to someone who is inflamed with anger or completely enveloped with anger. This choice of wording implies that God himself is so angry with sinners that it fills his entire body, inflames his being, and it is entirely because, once again, of our own doing.
These pieces of the sermon Edwards used points to a major part of his sermon, and that is how the Puritans themselves caused God’s anger towards them.
