In his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Jonathan Edwards compares sinners to vermin—specifically, worms and spiders. Indeed, one of the most memorable images from the sermon is that of a person holding a spider over a fire, meant to represent how God perpetually holds sinners over hell by a thread.
Edwards uses animals that are popularly perceived as vermin to illustrate the loathsomeness of sinners to God. Edwards chooses the spider as an example of a creature that is widely considered undesirable and even loathsome. By way of metaphor, he is saying that God feels much the same way about sinful human beings. Therefore, God has no problem with damning sinners and banishing them from the holiness of heaven.
Edwards makes a similar point using the example of a worm:
We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that...
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we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell.
Again, the purpose of the comparison is to underscore how readily God might cast sinners into hell.
These devices are also a way of hammering home to Edwards's audience that they have no way of appealing to God through their own goodness or efforts. Indeed, the loathsomeness of humanity seems to overpower everything else about it. In this way, Edwards is stressing that belief in Christ is the only escape route humans have from an eternity of torture in hell. Otherwise, they have no more appeal to God than spiders or worms do to humans.
In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," to which two creatures does Edwards compare sinners?
In this sermon, Edwards likens sinners to spiders and to other types of insects:
"That God holds you over the Pit of Hell, as one holds a Spider or some loathsome Insect."
In addition, Edwards also likens political figures, rulers and monarchs ("Potentates") to a worm:
"...are but feeble, despicable Worms of the Dust."
By imagining sinners in this way, Edwards expresses his disgust for those who sin: they are little more than an insect, of little or no importance, and waiting to be trampled upon by God. Moreover, this image of insects suggests that sinners are inferior to other, God-abiding people. In other words, he dehumanises sinners.
Moreover, in creating this comparison, Edwards creates a powerful call to action to his parishioners. He wants them to turn their back on sin and to realise that only God can save them from spending the rest of eternity in Hell.
In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," to what does Edwards compare humans?
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a famous revivalist sermon by Puritan minister Johnathan Edwards. Edwards was a crucial part of the First Great Awakening, a movement in the United States aimed at bringing people back to God by bringing fiery, rhetorically-charged sermons to meeting houses and revival gatherings. Edwards, being a puritan, was a staunch Calvinist, and his belief in the five principle tenants of Calvinist doctrine comes across clearly in his sermon—especially the ideas of total depravity and limited atonement.
In his sermon, Johnathan Edwards says many things about the audience and their faith. He compares the listeners to three principle symbols: a tree, troubled seas, and a spider or insect. Each of these symbols acts in a different capacity for explaining one of the doctrinal stances that Edwards promulgated throughout the sermon.
Of the first symbol, he says,
They deserve to be cast into Hell; so that divine Justice never stands in the Way, it makes no Objection against God’s using his Power at any Moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, Justice calls aloud for an infinite Punishment of their Sins. Divine Justice says of the Tree that brings for such Grapes of Sodom, Cut it down, why cumbreth it the Ground, Luk. 13.7 [Page 6]
Edwards first brings up the tree as a symbol of humans and humanity. In Edwards's eyes, humans are totally depraved—a fundamental belief of Calvinists—and to say that they deserve hell would make total sense. To compare them to a tree that bears fruit like the Grapes of Sodom means that the people are only bearing evil and sin. The imagery of the tree bearing evil fruit is meant to drive home the point that even the listener, who might believe they're covenanted, could be cast into hell if not for God’s grace.
The second symbol, a troubled sea, is straight from the scripture. Edwards uses the same image as Isaiah 57:20 to explain the fact that “For the present God restrains their Wickedness by his mighty Power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled Sea, saying, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further” (Page 8). Edwards uses this symbol to show the power of God in His sovereignty and that it is by His hand that evil is restrained and by His hand that people are allowed to do good or evil. This belief is particular to Calvinists and is a byproduct of their understanding of predestination, God allows/creates people to do evil, but He also controls the extent of their ability to do evil. This part further enforces the idea that the listener has little control over their destiny; they cannot control their actions for good or evil.
The last symbol is probably the most famous image from the entire sermon: “The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some other loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked.” (Page 15). The listener, and indeed all humans, are like a spider held over a fire in the same way that God holds all people over the fires of hell. In just one quick movement or simple decision, God could cast every unworthy sinner into the flames. It is only by the grace of His will that we are not sent to hell. This type of shocking imagery did exactly what Edwards wanted it to: it caused hysteria and conversion by the hundreds. The use of this type of description drove home his essential points and brought repentance from the audience.