Edwards first preached an early version of “Sinners” at his parish in Northampton, Massachusetts, but the sermon in its full form was not heard until July 8th, 1741, when Edwards preached the version we have come to know in Enfield, Connecticut, where he was a guest. The sermon was, for Edwards, fairly brief, but its message was inestimably powerful. The sermon, although frightening, was very popular with New England audiences. Edwards was often invited to re-preach the sermon, which he did so frequently that he eventually could recite the sermon almost entirely from memory, with only a small outline to guide him.
The subjects touched upon in the sermon – namely, human sinfulness, the uncertainty of existence, God’s ultimate power over salvation, the need for a Christian lifestyle, the chance of redemption, and the importance of conversion – were very familiar to New England churchgoers. When Edwards preached “Sinners,” the Great Awakening was fully underway, and the doctrinal notion of “conversion” was a topic with which churchgoers were eminently familiar. According to Puritan doctrine, the process of conversion was more complicated than simply professing allegiance to a church; conversion involved the influence of divine grace, which could cause a person to be truly awakened to God and Christianity. Once converted, a person had a chance of salvation, but only God could induce conversion.
The message of “Sinners” was a familiar and important one for the Puritans. They couldn’t know whether they were truly converted, and they couldn’t make their conversion happen; the most they could do, as Edwards implied, was to make their conversion more likely by living a truly Christian life, characterized by both internal thought and external action. In order to foster the notion that humans could not merit their own conversion or salvation, Edwards emphasized in “Sinners” the fact that God had inexplicably chosen not to cast many sinners into hell. Through “Sinners,” Edwards attempted to demonstrate that God was omnipotent and beyond human understanding, an assertion that defied the tendency to anthropomorphize God and to impose human logic upon divine actions. Edwards emphasized the importance of the New Birth, which entailed living a Christian life, which would serve the dual purpose of bringing glory to God (which was an assumed purpose of human existence) and making one’s conversion more likely. To ignore the Christian tenets that God had outlined for the benefit of humanity would be, Edwards implied, an affront to God that would be deserving of God’s wrath.
In order to awaken his audience to the power of God, Edwards evoked vivid images of God’s wrath, employing fierce metaphors drawn from the Bible and from his own work. While Edwards’ congregation would have been duly familiar with most Biblical imagery employed by Edwards and other preachers, Edwards twisted many Biblical references in unfamiliar ways. For example, Edwards likens
the fire stoked by King Nebuchadnezzar to God’s own wrath. This comparison is intriguing, because Nebuchadnezzar notably displayed a lack of faith and prudence as a ruler, and such a comparison would be both ingenious and daring of Edwards. While such comparisons were quite unique, the harsh imagery and rhetorical strategies utilized in “Sinners” were not particular to Edwards; this fire-and-brimstone style of preaching was a popular genre which, having been revitalized during the Great Awakening, was familiar to the Puritans. Upon reading “Sinners,” modern readers might assume that Edwards was a particularly angry or vengeful man, but it is important to remember that “Sinners” was simply a product of a genre – it was fire-and-brimstone, preaching at its most eloquent and effective. Readers may be shocked to learn that it was Edwards’ habit to preach his sermons in a measured monotone, which he did in the hopes that his own intonations would not distract from the divine messages being conveyed by the words of the sermon. We can, therefore, be fairly sure that “Sinners” was not screamed at the many audiences that it was preached to. It is also important to remember that only a fraction of Edwards’ sermons fall into the fire-and-brimstone category. This genre was, for Edwards, the exception rather than the rule. Other of Edwards’ sermons focused on topics such as the love of God, the wonder of Christ, and the glory of the natural world.
Upon reading “Sinners,” modern readers might also be inclined towards the belief that the sermon is simply a ‘holier than thou’ treatise of condemnation. However, one must remember that Edwards saw preaching as a form of prophesying, of doing God’s will and helping humanity by conveying God’s message to the world in an effective manner. The evocative images of hell and the fire-and-brimstone style, although unsavory, would have been a means to this end. And one has only to read Edwards autobiographical “Personal Narrative” to discover that he was vastly unsure of his own conversion and amply convinced of his exceptional sinfulness and unworthiness. In preaching “Sinners,” Edwards was attempting to help listeners and readers by awakening them to the horrible truths over which he had long agonized. And when Edwards speaks emphatically of the possibility of one parishioner being condemned to hell, readers can see Edwards’ own compassion and humanity on full display.