According to this article:
Rev. Jonathan Edwards delivered the hellfire and brimstone "spider" sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. This topical sermon is a bitter jeremiad against the "New York Negro rebels" who were then being executed for plotting to burn the village of New York to the ground.
The reference is to the New York Conspiracy of 1741, which did occur the same summer that Edwards delivered his most famous sermon. The article proceeds to draw inferences from the text of the speech, descriptions of the circumstances, and a connection to "prosecuting attorney William Smith" to assert that the mania in New York that summer was the subject of his oration. Finally the article concludes:
Ultimately absolved by their minister, the jubilant people in Enfield were free; but thrilling sermons in Connecticut could be no solace to the tortured in New York.
But searching around, I'm having a hard time finding any supporting evidence to back that theory up. It's doubly difficult to determine what, if anything, Edwards knew of events in New York that summer or what he thought of them. The sermon itself seems to be more focused on eternal consequences than on current events. It's pretty much the defining moment of the Great Awakening.
Is there any documentation that shows Jonathan Edwards' purpose for delivering this particular sermon?
