Quijada 1

Elias Quijada
Mrs. Smith
English 11-Per 7
3 September 2014
Rhetorical Precis for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Jonathan Edwards, in this excerpt from his speech, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God (1741), declares that God will punish those who are not in his grace. Edwards supports this
claim by first using imagery to allow his Puritan audience to visualize what their future will be if
they do not repent towards God (There are black clouds of Gods wrath now hanging directly
over your heads); second, by once again using imagery he shows the rage and power that an
angry God can contain, which in this case is just like the power of huge waves that will destroy
anything in its path (The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present:
they increase, more and more, and rise higher and higher); and third, by using a simile he
compares the way God holds a sinful human being to one holding a helpless spider in order to
show the amount of power God has over a human just that human would have over a spider
(The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome
insect over the fire). Edwardss purpose is to scare those who do not respect or love God in
order to make them love God in a fearful way by explaining the punishment that God would give
to them if they do not. His callous tone threatens those who have sinned against God to fear Him
in order for them to love and respect him by stating that God feels pleasure when punishing those
who have sinned (the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there
is nothing but the pleasure of God).