Jonathan Edwards | Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, 1741
Before enrolling at Yale College at age twelve, Jonathan Edwards studied natural history and wrote an essay titled “The Flying Spider.” However, his adult fame came from his theological works; his ministry at Christ Church in Northampton, Massachusetts; and his sermons, which he delivered in a quiet yet emotive voice. He first delivered “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” at a revival in Enfield, Connecticut, in 1741. Religious opposition to the revivals eventually forced Edwards from his Northampton pulpit, but he continued to publish and to preach, including to New England Indians.
There is nothing that keeps wicked Men at any one Moment, out of Hell, but the meer Pleasure of GOD.
By the meer Pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign Pleasure, his arbitrary Will, restrained by no Obligation, hinder’d by no manner of Difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God’s meer Will had in the least Degree, or in any Respect whatsoever, any Hand in the Preservation of wicked Men. . . .
He is not only able to cast wicked Men into Hell, but he can most easily do it. . . .
We find it easy to tread on and crush a Worm that we see crawling on the Earth; so ’tis easy for us to cut or singe a slender Thread that any Thing hangs by; thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his Enemies down to Hell. . . .
[What] Use may be of [an] Awakening to unconverted Persons in this Congregation[?] . . . That World of Misery, that Lake of burning Brimstone is extended abroad under you. . . .
You probably are not sensible of this. . . . [But] if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend & plunge into the bottomless Gulf, and your healthy Constitution, and your own Care and Prudence, and best Contrivance, and all your Righteousness, would have no more Influence to uphold you and keep you out of Hell, than a Spider’s Web would have to stop a falling Rock. . . .
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. . . .
[But] now you have an extraordinary Opportunity, a Day wherein CHRIST has flung the Door of Mercy wide open, and stands in the Door calling and crying with a loud Voice to poor Sinners. . . .
And you that are young Men, and young Women, will you neglect this precious Season that you now enjoy, when so many others of your Age are renouncing all youthful Vanities, and flocking to CHRIST? You especially have now an extraordinary Opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as it is with those Persons that spent away all the precious Days of Youth in Sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. . . .
Therefore let every one that is out of CHRIST, now awake and fly from the Wrath to come. The Wrath of almighty GOD is now undoubtedly hanging over great Part of this Congregation: Let every one fly out of Sodom: Haste and escape for your Lives, look not behind you, escape to the Mountain, least you be consumed.
Source: Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” A Sermon Preached at Enfield, July 8, 1741 (Boston: S. Kneeland and T. Grant, 1741), 5, 12–13, 15, 23–24, 25.
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