The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University

Although this sermon surely stands as the most famous of all of Jonathan Edwards' writings, and possibly the most famous American sermon, Edwards' original delivery of it to his Northampton congregation in June 1741 met with a muted reception. That was because the sermon, as first composed, was quite different, milder and more pastoral. Perhaps sensing at some level the inherent power of this sermon, however, he revised and repreached it a month later, on July 8, at Enfield, Massachusetts (now part of Connecticut). The results are now the stuff of history, myth, even caricature. The Reverend Stephen Williams of nearby Longmeadow recorded in his diary that, on that day, he

went over to Enfd, where we met Dear Mr E- of N. H. - who preachd a most awakening Sermon from those words Deut - 32.35 - and before ye Sermon - was done there was a great moaning - & crying out throughout ye whole House - what shall I do to be Savd - oh I am going to Hell - oh what shall I do for a christ &c &c - so yt ye minister - was obligd to desist - shreiks & crys - were piercing & Amazing - - after Some time of waiting - the congregation were still So yt a prayr was made by Mr W - & after that we descendd from the pulpitt and discoursd - with the people - Some in one place & Some in another - and Amazing & Astonishing - ye powr - God was Seen - & Severall Souls were hopfully - wrought upon yt - night & oh ye cheerfullness & pleasntness of thier countenances - yt receivd comfort - oh yt God - wd strengthen & confirm &c we Sung an hymn & prayd & despersd - ye Assembly.

Such was the power— and the fear— generated by this sermon that Edwards apparently was unable to finish preaching it— possibly the only time such an interruption had happened to him aside from when the balcony had collapsed in the Northampton meetinghouse during a service in 1737. Reflecting on the sermon, Williams says that he "seemd affectd & movd - ready to dissolve in Tears &c - but cant well tell why &c."Stephen Williams, Diary, Storrs Library, Longmeadow, Mass., typescript, vol. 3, pp. 375–76.

What is it about this sermon that inspired rigid Calvinists to scream from their pews? Certainly not the delivery. Edwards preached all his sermons in a "natural way of delivery, and without any agitation of body, or anything else in the manner to excite attention" (as reported by Thomas Prince, in 1744).Quoted in Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Carlisle, Pa., Banner of Truth, 1987), 75. Rather, Edwards' rhetorical genius in using verbal imagery was nowhere better illustrated than here. Literary historian J. A. Leo Lemay has called Sinners "the most effective imprecatory sermon in American literature." Lemay goes on to show, in literary terms, how Edwards achieved his success through shifts in personal references, increasing immediacy in time and place, and tension through logic and negative syntax.J. A. Leo Lemay, "Rhetorical Strategies in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County," in Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and the Representation of American Culture, ed. Oberg and Stout, 186–203; Wilson H. Kimnach, "The Brazen Trumpet: Jonathan Edwards's Conception of the Sermon," in Jonathan Edwards: His Life and Influence, ed. Charles Angoff (Rutherford, N.J., Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1975), 29–44. For other descriptions, see Winslow, Jonathan Edwards, pp. 190–93; Miller, Jonathan Edwards, 145–48; Tracy, Jonathan Edwards, Pastor, 134–35; Ross J. Pudaloff, "‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’: The Socio-Economic and Intellectual Matrices for Edwards' Sermon," Mosaic 16 (Summer 1983), 45–64; Terence Erdt, Jonathan Edwards and the Sense of the Heart (Amherst, Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1980), 73–77; Edward J. Gallagher, "‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’: Some Unfinished Business," New England Quarterly 73 (June 2000), 202–21. Whereas in Sinners in Zion Edwards used a single metaphor to inspire fear of God and damnation, in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God he employs no less than twenty metaphors or descriptive adjectives to express God's wrath and hell's torments. The metaphors include a pit, an oven, a mouth, a furnace, a sword, flames, a serpent, a troubled sea, black clouds approaching, waters dammed by a floodgate, a bow bent with an arrow ready to be "made drunk with your blood," an ax, and a heavy load that cannot be held. As Edwin H. Cady first pointed out,Edwin H. Cady, "The Artistry of Jonathan Edwards," New England Quarterly 22 (March 1949), 61–72. these metaphors of suspension and depression reinforce one another until there is such a sense of impending doom that one can almost feel the weight of personal sin and wrath descending on "my" soul. Another literary historian, Wilson H. Kimnach, has found that, in composing Sinners, Edwards drew on accumulated images from many sermons by himself and others (which may explain why the people of Northampton, who had heard it all before in one form or another, were indifferent). Even more, Kimnach has pointed out that Sinners followed the form of an execution sermon, traditionally preached as a condemned person stood waiting

on the gallows to be hanged— a parallel that would not have been lost on hearers steeped in sermonic variations.Works, 10, 167–79.

But there is more to this sermon than sophisticated literary technique. Its message is at once universal and personal. For sinners, hell is the consequence of lost opportunities: "‘No, I never intended to come here; I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind. I thought my scheme good. It came as a thief. Death outwitted me. God's wrath was too quick for me; O my cursed foolishness!’" As in Sinners in Zion, Edwards directs a special plea to the young men and women, asking them whether they "will neglect this precious season that [they] now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ… when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?" Even the children are not spared Edwards' imagery; youth is no excuse. "And you children, that are unconverted, don't you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God that is now angry with you every day and every night?" In the later, printed version of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards heightens the similarities between the two sermons (no doubt deliberately) when he quotes Isaiah 33:14, the text of Sinners in Zion. This sermon appears in most anthologies of American literature, where it is read by countless high school and college students. Yet historians and theologians are continually pointing out that this sermon is not representative of Jonathan Edwards' breadth of thought, nor is it representative of his corpus of sermons, even his sermons during the Great Awakening. It is, instead, illustrative of one type of sermon, a very specific type— the "awakening sermon." Indeed, it is the quintessential "fire and brimstone" sermon, at once riveting to the "convicted" and despised by skeptics. There is little room for aesthetic appreciation when listening to or reading such a sermon. Rather, the responses evoked are terror or disgust. Often Edwards devoted his sermons to single themes but included many separate points under them. Not so with an awakening sermon. Edwards continually repeats one theme— the horror of the damned— in as many ways as he sees necessary. The art of this sermon consists in its apparent indifference to art. As the preacher pursues a single theme throughout the sermon, he creates his own artistic effects. And in this single sermon, on which, for better or worse, rests much of Edwards' notoriety, he reached what many consider his artistic apex.

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The first edition of this sermon was printed in 1741. The half-title page announces, "Mr. Edwards's SERMON On the Danger of the UNCONVERTED." The main title page reads as follows: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. A Sermon Preached at Enfield, July 8th 1741. At a Time of great Awakenings; and attended with remarkable Impressions on many of the Hearers. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northampton." The epigraph is a quote from Amos 9:2-03. The sermon, twenty-five pages in length, was printed and sold in Boston by Samuel Kneeland and Thomas Green "in Queen-Street over against the Prison. 1741."

The original manuscript of June 1741, a transcription of which is printed as an appendix to the text of the printed sermon, consists of one booklet of twelve duodecimo leaves. Shorthand notations above the Application, on the recto of leaf 5, tell us that Edwards repreached this sermon a second time through the end of the first Use— possibly an indication of the point he had reached when the Enfield congregation grew too boisterous. The third time Edwards delivered it, he changed the text to Psalms 7:11, "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day." A rare two-leaf outline or synopsis of the sermon, accompanying the booklet, strongly suggests that Edwards preached this sermon many more than three times and that he did so extemporaneously. Though not an itinerant preacher like George Whitefield, who often repeated sermons scores of times, Edwards apparently enjoyed such success with this sermon that he traveled with it, possibly more than any other of his sermons. Though fully written out, it is of modest length by Edwards' standards— perfect for portability and local adaptability.

There are discrepancies between the manuscript itself and the version published in 1741.For a fuller description, see Works, 10, 113–16. Within the Doctrine, Edwards added the last half of point VI, beginning at the reference to Isaiah 57:20, and he significantly expanded points VII–XI, which are all very sketchy in the manuscript (pts. VIII–X, for example, consist of only single topical statements). In the Application, the most significant differences come near the end. In the manuscript, there is a second Use of Instruction that includes six instances and concludes with "a word of advice to natural men" in two brief points. For the printed sermon, Edwards made the Application one long Use, changing it from its mild, pastoral tone to a more dramatic, intense form; toward its conclusion he considers the nature, object, and duration of God's wrath.