Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God In the sermon, Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards, scathingly attempts to persuade Puritans to turn to God to seek forgiveness before it’s too late by instilling fear into his speech. He instills fear not only by his forceful choice of words but also by his imagery. The imagery is elaborated on with the syntax and metaphors that emotionally affect the Puritans and non-Christians. This would be even more effective due to him being a preacher. The choice of words that Edwards decided to subsume were very cacophonous and pompous.

The fact that the words are very loaded would lead to the Puritans and non-Christians having a lot to decipher and think about. According to him, the people who sin are left “hanging” over a “hot” and “fiery pit” which God can easily “cast” them “down to hell”. Due to what he says, the Puritans and non-Christians would be very fearful due to having a preacher scorn at them. The message that Edwards wants to spread would stay on their mind due to the message being very loaded. Imagery also goes hand by hand with the diction that he chose. The effects that it has is almost identical to the effects that diction has. By elaborating on God’s wrath by describing hell would incite fear into the sinners. This would make them want to change and ask for forgiveness.

Imagery is also employed with metaphors. Edwards inserts many metaphors that would work