Ethos In Sinners

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Preacher, Jonathan Edward, in his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God”, preaches his personal belief of what is going to happen to us when we die and what God will do to people who have not repented. Edward’s purpose is to convey the idea that we are all sinners and God has the power to do whatever he wants to do to us. He adopts a furious tone to affect the reader's feelings and make them feel repentful and guilty.

Edward starts his sermon by arguing that God is not required to keep anyone out of hell. He appeals to the listener's emotion through fear, he uses imagery to show how easily God can decided to drop us into hell. “God should let you go, you would immediately sink… and plunge into a bottomless gulf...would have no more …show more content…
He appeals to the emotions of the listener with ethos and imagery. “... you hang by a slender thread, with flames of divine wrath flashing about it...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 God to spare you one moment.” (Edward 40) Repetition of the word you and wrath creates ethos which causes the listener to feel like they are being directed at personally, which causes more emotion for the listener. He also uses imagery again to describe how horrible hell is he uses descriptive words to visualize the pain and torture sinners are going to face in hell. The vivid use of imagery and ethos creates a terrifying tone but it allows Edwards to get his point of fear …show more content…
He achieves this by using rhetorical questions to guilt trap the listener. “How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield where they are flocking from day to day to christ?” (Edwards 45) “Will you be content to be the children of the devil when so many other children in the land are converted and are becoming holy and happy children of the king of kings?” (Edwards 46) His use of rhetorical questions makes the listener ponder about what he is saying and then makes them fearful of what will happen to them if they continue to live in their sins. It also will make the listener guilty about all the sins they have done and God has still put up with their transgressions but he can’t save people who don’t want to be saved causing readers to want to

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