The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet ’tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment; ’tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep: and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up; there is no other reason to be given why you han’t gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don’t this very moment drop down into hell.
This portion struck me as surprising and contrary to modern Christian teaching. Growing up Catholic, God was always presented as loving and compassionate. This speech seems to paint a completely different picture. Edwards seems to view God as loathsome towards humans because of their sins against him and that they have "offended" him. You could almost infer that he is possibly suggesting that God wants to "drop" us into hell instead of bringing us salvation. I believe modern theologians would consider this a radical theology that would be disputed by all modern Christian faiths.