Rhetorical devices/appeals
1st period
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Pathos
Definition: The way of creating a persuasive argument by developing an emotional appeal to
the audience.
E.g 1: “...his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions
of the fierceness of his wrath in hell.”
Reason: This shows the emotion from both God and the sinners.
E.g 2: “That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you.”
Reason: This is an example of pathos because these words are trying to persuade you that you
will suffer using emotional words such as misery.
E.g 3: “ They are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair. But here you are in the land of
the living, and in the house of god, ..”
Reason: This is an example because it’s using the people who are in hell and who are miserable
to persuade the readers to enjoy life outside god’s wrath.
Ethos - Ethical appeal and credibility
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“You have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save
yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing
that you have ever done, nothing that you can do ,to induce the god to spare
you one moment.”
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“There is reason to think that, there are many in this congregation now
hearing this disclosure, that will be the subjects of this very misery for all
eternity.”
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He’s belittling the sinners and praising God
He’s belittling the sinners again and says that they’ll go to hell if they don’t start praising God
“Thus are all of you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the
mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls…”
○
He is talking about how people that praise God are greatly changed
Logos: To persuade the target audience with a
logical, reasonable argument.
Examples:
God is the least bound by any promise to hold them up at one moment. God is not obligated
to keep or make any promises to the people.
● “ Thus are all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of
the Spirit of God upon your souls;(98)”
What the author is saying is that if you praise god himself you will change as a person.
● He looks upon you as nothing else, but to be cast into the fire, he is of purer eyes to bear you
in his sight.
God sees the people as not important and worthless in his eyes.
●
Parallelism
Definition- The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry that correspond in
grammatical structure sound,meter,meaning, Etc
Escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.
(Edwards 99) Author is saying you can’t escape from your past but you can escape from
people.
Nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep of the flames of wrath, Nothing
that you have ever done, Nothing that you can do to induce god to spare you one moment
(Edwards 99) Author is saying that god has control of things and nothing you do can change
it
It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, you
are held over in the hand of god whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you.
(Edwards 98) Author is saying that god is in control and there's nothing you can do.
CONNOTATION: Definition & Examples
Connotation- an Idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its
literal or primary meaning
¨The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some
loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked¨
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It means that God doesn't care if you go to Heaven or not. The feelings behind
it are anger and disgust.
¨all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being
dead to sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life¨
It means that God forgave them for their sins and made them a new person.
The feeling behind this is relief.
“ day, wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God.”
■ It means that they're going to Heaven. The feeling behind this is happiness.
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Alliteration- The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning and/or adjacent
connection of words.
1.
-
“... to appease or abate that anger,...” pg. 97 paragraph 1
The letter “A” is used multiple times in the sentence,
causing a tongue twister.
2. “...,that lake of burning brimstone,...” pg. 97 paragraph 2
-This is alliteration due to the multiple use of the letter “B”
close together.
3. “To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and
perishing!” pg. 99 paragraph 11
-The letter “P” is used multiple times in the sentence.
Repetition
The act of repeating an idea or word that has already been said or written.
“It is nothing but the mere Pleasure of God,
and that of an angry God”.
This would be an example because he uses “God” twice in this sentence and
several times throughout the sermon.
Hell
“So that thus it is, that natural men are half in the hand of God over the pit of
hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is
dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are
actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in
hell…”(Edwards, 98).
Uses hell twice, talking about its conditions and god's wrath.
“Consider the fearful danger you are in: It is a great furnace
of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of
wrath.”
This is an example of Repetition because it uses the word wrath several times
in the sermon. Explains the dangers and the pains you will run into.