Comparison of Puritan Writers: Jonathan Edwards and Edward Taylor
...nleash his anger upon the world and throw any who he chooses into eternal damnation. Indeed, he states, it is only God holding himself back. His use of metaphor puts the direness of the points he is emphasizing into a context more easily understood by his audience. This further develops the fear of God that those who are listening have begun to develop since the opening of the sermon. While metaphors help the audience to understand Edwards’ points, the tone he uses is the most persuasive aspect of his speech. Edwards begins with a rough, serious, and especially fearful tone as he warns his audience of the power and wrath that God has. He strikes fear in the eyes of those who watch him speak. Edwards uses this technique to ensure both that his audience will not lose interest in his sermon and that they will obey the suggestions he bestows upon them during his sermon to escape God’s wrath. Additionally, the dynamics of his tone allow Edwards to achieve yet another advantage during his sermon. While warning his audience of God’s ferocity, his tone is fierce and fearful, however later on in his speech he moves on to explain the circumstances under which God can and will pity a person. During this, Edwards’ tone mellows out, seemingly as a relief from the opening of his speech. The audience would view this relief as a means of escape from the danger they are in and would listen patiently to all Edwards has to say. Jonathan Edwards was a master at making use of tone, metaphor, and point of view to express the importance of devotion of one’s life to God. Edward Taylor, in “Huswifery,” makes use of a deep metaphor and an intense use of symbolism to emphasize the importance of the devotion of one’s life to God. Unlike Edwards, Taylor is speaking directly to God in his poem as opposed to an audience of people, and thus does not make use of the same characteristics of tone that Edwards uses. In the opening stanza, Taylor begs of God to “make [his] soul Thy holy spoole to be.” In this, Taylor compares the greatness and wisdom of God to a spool of thread and a spool that he would like to become part of. By requesting that he be the material contained on God’s next spool of thread, Taylor is symbolically asking God to take him and place in his soul the holiness of God. In the following stanza, Taylor then asks God to take the yarn he has spun of Taylor’s soul and to make it his loom, to knit it into a heavenly decorated work of greatness. While in the first stanza, Taylor asked of God to put his grace within him by spinning his soul into His next spool of thread, Taylor now requests that he take that yarn and make a cloth out of it, decorated with a heavenly touch, almost as if to make him complete. The last stanza emphasizes the importance of the clothes Taylor asks God to knit from his soul when he asks that God dress him in the cloth. By clothing Taylor with the heavenly spun cloth, he is instilling within him the holy sacraments that God himself holds. Taylor concludes in saying that upon dressing him in such clothes, God will clothe him in holy robes that he might exemplify God’s glory. While Edwards’ key point of emphasis was God’s wrath, Taylor emphasizes the glory of God and the virtues contained within him. By using metaphor to compare God’s virtues to holy cloth, Taylor demonstrates the purity and virtues of God and shows that His sacraments are those that should be desired by everyone. Therefore, he too strives to devote his life to God, just as Edwards has. Edward Taylor mastered a keen use of symb...