Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Comparison

Puritan literature and Rationalist literature are two contrasting types of writing that served different purposes. One example of Puritan literature is the Sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. This was written by Jonathan Edwards and preached by him in Enfield Connecticut on July 8th, 1741. The sermon focused on us humans and how we are bound to fall into destruction if we do not seek God and save ourselves. An example of Rationalist literature is The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. The part of this text that I will focus on is the chapter on his plan for attaining moral perfection. This chapter talks about Benjamin Franklins plan for attaining moral perfection and what he learned through it. The role of the author in Puritan literature

is to encourage us to focus our lives on God whereas the role of the author in Rationalist literature is to encourage us to focus on ourselves.
In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards focuses on the unimportance of the individual. This is emphasized through the theme of the individual, “Almost every natural Man that hears of Hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own Security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do; every one lays out Matters in his own Mind how he shall avoid Damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his Schemes won’t fail” (Edwards 3). In this quote Edwards is saying that no matter how you plan out and live your life most likely you will go to Hell. The puritans believed in the idea of predestination which is the belief that God has already chosen whether you are destined to go to heaven or to hell. This shows that God has overall control over our lives and that if we want to be saved we must devote ourselves to God. Our individual self has no real importance, instead we must strive to be a part of the group of people that will be saved by God. In order to do this we must relinquish our individuality and conform to the teachings of the Church.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin describes his journey to achieving self-perfection and how he failed. Franklin believed that he could achieve moral perfection by breaking our bad habits and developing more virtuous ones. Once putting his plan into action he describes what he learned from it, “On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet as I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it” (Franklin 6). Although in the end Benjamin Franklin never reached perfection the quote shows that he improved himself and became happier. The main goal of rationalism was for the individual to develop their full potential because the individual was seen as important. They deserved to be happy and didn’t deserve to live in misery. People should use reason and logic to work towards improving society instead of working towards pleasing God.
Although Puritan and Rationalist literature have several differences they have a few similarities.

Although puritan literature is more focused on religion rather than rationalist literature they both talk about the imperfection of humans. In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God it talks about how we fall into destruction, “It implies that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected Destruction. As he that walks in slippery Places is every Moment liable to fall; he can’t foresee one Moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once, without Warning” (Edwards 1). This quote shows that just like walking on a slippery surface we are bound to fall and we won’t know when but we will fall back into temptation. In Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography he talks about how it was hard to overcome his imperfections, “This article, therefore, cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbor, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge”(Franklin 5). It is hard and nearly impossible for humans to achieve moral perfection because we often relapse into bad habits. The same thing is seen in the sermon and in both texts we can see how when we do fall or relapse into committing wrongful actions it is always our own

fault.
In conclusion, the role of the author in Puritan literature is to explain the importance of God in our lives whereas the role of the author in Rationalist literature is to explain how we are important as an individual. Everything the puritans did was to gain salvation and escape the wrath of God. The purpose of their literature was to guide them into how to live a holy life and the consequences that followed if they did not. The rationalist however believed differently and thought that each person should work towards perfecting themselves and bettering the world around them. The purpose of their literature was to show them how to achieve perfection and how although they most likely won’t achieve it they will become a better person in the end. In the end both texts relate to each other because they show human imperfection but Puritan literature focuses on how imperfection is seen as a burden instead of seeing it as a chance to improve ourselves like Rationalist literature.