Rhetorical
strategies are persuasive devices. They differ from literary devices, which can be persuasive,
but primarily add extra value to words beyond the literal.
Edwards's chief
rhetorical strategy is fear. He wants his listeners (his congregation) to repent and turn back
to Christ, and he believes that building up their fear of eternal damnation is the best way to
achieve this goal.
He therefore uses the literary device of --describing with
the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell--to maximize his congregation's horror
at the idea of going to hell. He does this by making hell seem very near to us. It is not
"out there" as a place we might encounter in a distant time, but a present
danger.
Edwards, for example, uses the image of a rickety, broken bridge and
says this is what our life is, right now. We are walking across this bridge unseeing, with
broken slats beneath our feet, and at any time could plunge into the flames of hell below us.
This might not happen...
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