sinners in the hands of an angry god

Jonathan Edwards, 1741

Enfield, Connecticut

July 8,1741

. . . So that, thus it is that natural men are held in

the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have

deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to

it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as

5 great towards them as to those that are actually

suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath

in hell, and they have nothing in the least to appease

or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound

by any promise to hold them up for one moment; the

10 devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the

flames gather and flash about them, and would fain

lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent

up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and

they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no

15 means within reach that can be any security to them.

In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold

of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere

arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged

forbearance of an incensed God.

20 The use of this awful subject may be for

awakening unconverted persons in this congregation.

This that you have heard is the case of every one of

you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery,

that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad

25 under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing

flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide

gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand

upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing

between you and hell but the air; it is only the power

30 and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

You probably are not sensible of this; you

find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand

of God in it; but look at other things, as the good

state of your bodily constitution, your care of your

35 own life, and the means you use for your own

preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if

God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no

more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to

hold up a person that is suspended in it.

40 Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy

as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight

and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you

go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend

and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy

45 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.

50 Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God,

the earth would not bear you one moment; for you

are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the

creature is made subject to the bondage of your

corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly

55 shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and

Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase

to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for

your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not

willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame

60 of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the

service of God's enemies.

God's creatures are good, and were made for

men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve

to any other purpose, and groan when they are

65 abused to purposes so directly contrary to their

nature and end. And the world would spew you out,

were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath

subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of

God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads,

70 full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and

were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would

immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign

pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough

wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your

75 destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you

would be like the chaff of the summer threshing

floor.

The wrath of God is like great waters that

are dammed for the present; they increase more and

80 more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet

is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the

more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is

let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil

works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of

85 God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt

in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you

are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters

are constantly rising, and waxing more and more

mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of

90 God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling

to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God

should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it

would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of

the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth

95 with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you

with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten

thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand

times greater than the strength of the stoutest,

sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to

100 withstand or endure it.

The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the

arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends

the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it

is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of

105 an angry God, without any promise or obligation at

all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being

made drunk with your blood.

Thus all you that never passed under a great

change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of

110 God upon your souls; all you that were never born

again, and made new creatures, and raised from

being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before

altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the

hands of an angry God. However you may have

115 reformed your life in many things, and may have had

religious affections, and may keep up a form of

religion in your families and closets, and in the house

of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps

you from being this moment swallowed up in

120 everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you

may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by

you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone

from being in the like circumstances with you, see

that it was so with them; for destruction came

125 suddenly upon most of them; when they expected

nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and

safety: now they see, that those things on which they

depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin

air and empty shadows.

130 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

135 fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in

his sight; you are ten thousand times more

abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful

venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him

infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his

140 prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds

you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to

be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to

hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake

again in this world, after you closed your eyes to

145 sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why

you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the

morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There

is no other reason to be given why you have not gone

to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God,

150 provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked

manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there

is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why

you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

155 O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are

in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and

bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are

held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is

provoked and incensed as much against you, as

160 against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a

slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath

flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it,

and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any

Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself,

165 nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of

your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing

that you can do, to induce God to spare you one

moment. . . .

There is reason to think, that there are many

170 in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that

will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all

eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats

they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be

they are now at ease, and hear all these things

175 without much disturbance, and are now flattering

themselves that they are not the persons, promising

themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that

there was one person, and but one, in the whole

congregation, that was to be the subject of this

180 misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of!

If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it

be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the

congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over

him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely

185 will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be

a wonder, if some that are now present should not be

in hell in a very short time, even before this year is

out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that

now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in

190 health, quiet and secure, should be there before

tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue

in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell

longest will be there in a little time! your damnation

does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all

195 probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You

have reason to wonder that you are not already in

hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have

seen and known, that never deserved hell more than

you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have

200 been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope;

they are crying in extreme misery and perfect

despair; but here you are in the land of the living

and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to

obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned

205 hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as

you now enjoy!

And now you have an extraordinary

opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the

door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and

210 crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day

wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into

the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the

east, west, north and south; many that were very

lately in the same miserable condition that you are

215 in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled

with love to him who has loved them, and washed

them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing

in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left

behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting,

220 while you are pining and perishing! To see so many

rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have

cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for

vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in

such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as

225 the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are

flocking from day to day to Christ?

Are there not many here who have lived long

in the world, and are not to this day born again? and

so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and

230 have done nothing ever since they have lived, but

treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs,

your case, in an especial so are aliens from the

commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever

since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against

235 the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial

manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and

hardness of heart is extremely great. Do you not see

how generally persons of your years are passed over

and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful

240 dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to

consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly out of

sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of

the infinite God. -- And you, young men, and

young women, will you neglect this precious season

245 which 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 with those persons who spent all the precious

250 days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a

dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. -- And you,

children, who are unconverted, do not you know that

you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful

wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every

255 day and every night? Will you be content to be

children of the devil, when so many other children in

the land are converted, and are become the holy and

happy children of the King of kings?

And let every one that is yet out of Christ,

260 and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old

men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or

little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's

word and providence. This acceptable year of the

Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will

265 doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to

others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases

apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their

souls; and never was there so great danger of such

persons being given up to hardness of heart and

270 blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily

gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and

probably the greater part of adult persons that ever

shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time,

and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring

275 of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the

election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If

this should be the case with you, you will eternally

curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you

was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of

280 God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and

gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly

it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the

axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of

the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good

285 fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.

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 a great part of this congregation. Let every one

290 fly out of Sodom:"Haste and escape for your lives,

look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you

be consumed."