In order maximize the effectiveness of his sermon, Edward uses many rhetorical devices to better illustrate his message. In the excerpt, he starts out with referring to the audience as “you” in direct address, as if he were speaking to each one of them individually, deepening the impact. He then proceeds right into threatening, or using fear psychology; by describing the horrors of hell and that the only thing between the people and hell is “God’s mere pleasure”, as stated throughout the text. He also uses personification to further illustrate hell by describing the wrath of God as “hell’s wide gaping mouth open” (pg. 72), or describing the greatness of our wickedness that “the world would spew you out” (pg. 72). He also uses repetition when describing God’s wrath. He mentions is over and over again throughout the entire sermon, giving it different horrifying descriptions each time, enough to instill fear in the hearts of his audience.
Even though Edward did not include any biblical references to his sermon, he did use some biblical allusions, partly was because the puritans during that time grew up memorizing and studying the bible and did not need another reminder of certain references. Such allusions include “the most hateful venomous serpent” (pg. 73), which represents man’s first sin, where the serpent in the Garden of Eden tempts Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good an evil. Another example would be “washed them from their sins in his own blood”, which refers to Jesus’ blood when crucified on the cross that took the punishment for our sins.
Another effective way that Edward structured his message was the progressive use of similes. He starts off with describing the horrors of hell and the fact that only God can save humans from it. He describes their wickedness “as it were heavy as lead” (pg. 72), that pulls them down to the pit of hell, but only with God’s mere pleasure, his grace that holds them up. Then he proceeds with another simile to describe God’s wrath like great waters that rise as their wickedness rises, and in the end, it is only God that keeps the floodgate from pouring open at them. In between similes, Edward places a metaphor that describes how closely their life and death is governed by God. He states that God’s wrath is a bent bow with only his grace holding the arrow back from their hearts. Finally, in his last simile, he takes the human being and lowers him into as described in the text “some loathsome insect”, and God as an extremely angry “provoked” God, that huamsn are worthless and repulsive in his sight, yet he still saves them from hell – “a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath” (pg. 73).
This sermon was effective in the way that Edward focused on one point, and illustrated it by using different rhetorical devices such as biblical allusions, progression of similes, metaphors etc. He took one point and related in many ways that was applicable and that people would understand, whether it was comparing God’s wrath to nature, or our wickedness with material possession. Edward also introduced me to a different perspective of God. Often times in the present, we see God as a loving and gentle God, but in this sermon, He is seen as someone to be feared and regarded with reverence, an angry God that we are nothing compared to.
