Keep in mind that Edwards was a Puritan - the theme of
this sermon is largely the theme of the Puritan way of life which was essentially based
around the following Puritan theological
principles:
- humanity is inherently evil –
Puritans believed that all humans were born sinners and deserved eternal
damnation - God is merciful but unreachable - Puritans
believed in the mercy of God but that only “the elect” would be saved through the death
of Jesus Christ
Therefore this left a BIG
question: How do you know if you are “saved” or “damned?” The truth was, nobody really
knew, so preachers played on this very fear to condemn society into a guilty sense of
constant overcompensation for simply being human.
One
reason Edwards' tone is so emotional (as the first post suggests) is that Puritanical
Christianity was largely an emotional response to a God that no one felt worthy enough
to know personally, but certainly respected and feared his ever present power and
possible anger.
It was logically assumed, also, that the
clergy of this day had to be part of the elect. How could they not
be? If they can tell everyone how to live their lives, certainly they must be doing
something right. More likely than not, God had already chosen
them. Therefore, this sermon is also riddled with that smug sense of self-righteousness
that apparently permeated the colonial "heirarchy." This theme was later exposed by
Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter and revealed the sheer hypocrisy of
many Puritan religious leaders.
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