Using a
, Edwards describes God's enemies in the following way: "They
are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble
before devouring flames." In other words, people who oppose God are as weak as bits of
wheat before a large wind or dry tinder in a raging fire. They are weak and cannot withstand
God's power. Of God's wrath against sinners, Edwards says, "The sword of divine justice is
every moment brandished over their heads." In this metaphor, God's ability to get vengeance
is compared to a sword hanging over sinners' heads, ready to fall on them. In a , which, like a
metaphor, is a form of figurative language, Edwards says of sinners:
"The devils watch them; they are ever by them at
their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and
expect to have it, but are for the present kept back."
In this simile, Edwards compares the devil to lions waiting to launch themselves at
their prey. In other words, he says that people are always prone to committing evil.
In an example of repetition to emphasize God's power,
Edwards begins two sentences with the word "God":
"God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to
keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of
eternal life."
When Edwards turns his focus later in
the speech to his audience, he begins several sentences with "you":
"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 which
you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and
flocking to Christ?"
By repeating the word "you," he makes the message directly to
his audience that it's time for them to accept God.
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