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Christ (“the Mediator”)
The congregants of a church in Enfield, Connecticut are the audience of Edwards’ sermon. While the ideas of the Great Awakening—a Protestant revival that emphasized individual religious experience and the necessity of salvation through Christ—were sweeping New England in the 1740s, this congregation had been stubbornly immune to accepting the new religious fervor, and Edwards was enlisted to convert them. Edwards repeatedly insists that, while the congregants might be arrogantly confident in their religious faith and their ultimate ascension to heaven, many of them would be unpleasantly surprised to find themselves in hell due to their improper beliefs and practices. As such, Edwards implores them to change their ways before it’s too late. The members of the congregation were reportedly terrified by Edwards’ sermon, interrupting him constantly to ask what they might do to avoid the horrible fate he described. When Edwards says “you” in the sermon, he is referring to the congregation.
The Congregation Quotes in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
The Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God quotes below are all either spoken by The Congregation or refer to The Congregation . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1
Quotes
Yea God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.
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But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow.
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Part 2. Application
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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; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.
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That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies that he will inflict wrath without any pity: when God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportion’d to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed and sinks down, as it were into an infinite gloom, he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much, in any other sense than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires: nothing shall be with held, because it’s so hard for you to bear.
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The Congregation Quotes in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
The Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God quotes below are all either spoken by The Congregation or refer to The Congregation . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1
Quotes
Yea God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2. Application
Quotes
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; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.
Related Characters:
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies that he will inflict wrath without any pity: when God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportion’d to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed and sinks down, as it were into an infinite gloom, he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much, in any other sense than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires: nothing shall be with held, because it’s so hard for you to bear.
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Page Number and Citation:
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