has so many different unsearchable ways of taking
wicked men out of the world and sending them to
hell, that that there is nothing to make it appear, that
God had need be at the expence of a miracle... to
destroy any wicked man, at any moment.” In addi-
tion, the “care” humankind might take to escape hell
does not provide securities or guarantees as “men’s
own wisdom is no security to them from death.”
It should be kept in mind that “Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God,” though widely antholo-
gized, is only one selection from Edwards’s oeuvre,
and therefore the reader should not expect to glean
the entirety of Puritan cosmology and theology
from one piece aimed at the “unregenerate.” How-
ever, if the piece is read in context, one may come
to appreciate Edwards’s skill in delineating ideas
concerning the interrelationship of grace, human
behavior, and “divine justice.”
Jeff Pettineo
suFFerinG in “Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God”
In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jona-
than Edwards attempts to persuade his congregation
of the importance of following a pious path due to
the suffering incurred by “slipping” into sinfulness.
The only thing keeping a person from slipping into
hell due to sin is God’s grace—that is, according
to Edwards, people are always “exposed to sudden
unexpected destruction.” He relates ideas of suffer-
ing in highly figurative language, so “suffering” for
the purposes of this essay will be considered from a
largely psychological, emotional, and spiritual point
of view, with particular attention to the kinds of
images Edwards uses to illustrate his idea of God’s
wrath as it is levied against the “wicked.”
Edwards claims that divine justice warrants
someone being cast into hell, and “justice calls aloud
for an infinite punishment of their sins.” Hell is
essentially a state of envelopment in God’s wrath,
for Edwards asserts that the “pit of hell 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.”
Another image Edwards uses is that of consump-
tion: Hell is populated with devils who are like
hungry lions, ready to devour their prey. For the
purposes of persuasion, suffering is hyperbolized
through these grisly images, as Edwards wants to
demonstrate what the costs of not converting would
be—an extreme form of spiritual suffering. “Sin
is the ruin and misery of the soul,” he says. “It is
destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it
without restraint, there would need nothing else to
make the soul perfectly miserable.”
Humankind has no recourse but to accept God’s
grace in order to avoid suffering, for God holds the
key to redemption. Similarly, according to Edwards,
God has the power to torment the wicked man in
various ways: “God has so many different unsearch-
able ways of taking wicked men out of the world and
sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make
it appear, that God had need to be at the expence
of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of
his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any
moment.” Edwards also discusses suffering in terms
of apprehension, the knowledge that God’s wrath
is pent up, and that at any moment the tremendous
power of such wrath could pour over the wicked
man. Edwards uses three images to paint this pic-
ture: great waters that are dammed; a drawn bow;
and the “hand of God,” which holds something
loathsome like an insect or spider “over the pit of
hell.” Edwards relates that the waters “increase more
and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet
is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the
more rapid and mighty its course, when once it
is let loose.” Edwards describes the bow as being
bent by justice and the arrow “aimed at your heart,”
for only “the mere pleasure of God, and that of an
angry God” is what keeps the arrow from “being
made drunk with your blood.” Again, he talks of
God’s “pleasure” as that which prevents the parish-
ioner from “being this moment swallowed up in
everlasting destruction.” God has no mercy on one
who demands pity; instead, he “will only tread you
under foot.” The type of suffering one will experi-
ence, then, is born out of God’s sense of justice, for
if any one of the parishioners, says Edwards, remains
in an “unregenerate state,” God will not show pity
or compassion, nor will he have any “regard to your
welfare.”“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” 383