Purpose

One church in Enfield, Connecticut, had been largely unaffected during the First Great Awakening of New England. Edwards was invited by the pastor of the church to preach to them. Edwards’s aim was to teach his listeners about the horrors of hell, the dangers of sin, and the terrors of being lost. Edwards described the position of those who do not follow Christ’s urgent call to receive forgiveness. Edwards scholar John E. Smith notes that despite the apparent pessimism of the notion of an angry God, that pessimism is “overcome by the comforting hope of salvation through a triumphant, loving savior. Whenever Edwards preached terror, it was part of a larger campaign to turn sinners from their disastrous path and to the rightful object of their affections, Jesus Christ.”