Essay Questions

The author has frequently mentioned the spider and a dam in his book Jonathan Edwards' Sermons, what literary devices do they depict?

Both the dam and spider symbolically show the despicable nature of man and the divine's fury respectively. The construal of the reader is that when there is anxiety in the blocked water, God releases the excess water to allow serenity. This symbolically means that if an individual is facing troubles in life, he should not stop fighting against the malevolence because God will hear and relieve him from pain to allow harmony and peace of mind. According to Jonathan Edwards, everyone is scared of a spider. This explains why whenever a man sees a spider; he does not hesitate to kill it instantly. However, God is not afraid of both man and the spider because he does not see anything significant distinguishing them.

Why does Jonathan Edward look upon life as a profoundly sardonic?

Plausibly, Edward cannot be proved wrong even scientifically when he asserts that life is an irony. The rationale behind his reasoning is that human beings believe that there is a hidden heavenly power that adjudicates their deeds and way of life. According to Jonathan Edwards, there is no justification to disapprove his thinking that human beings exist because they have to. No human being has seen God to share his experience with the rest of humankind. However, Edward fails to understand how a man can blindly say that there is no heavenly authority.

How does Jonathan Edwards contrast the weightlessness of the consecrated being to one’s iniquity?

According to Edward, doing evil brings one closer to hell. He is of the opinion that people should always strive to do good deeds to attract the mercy of God. No one is holy but Edward stresses that we should continue struggling against the evil so that God can intervene and save us. To drive is point home; he uses the literary device simile to imply that doing God's will makes one lighter in the heart. He says, “Your wickedness makes you as heavy as lead.” This implies that doing evil makes one uneasy and regretful.