In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Johnathan Edwards, what danger do sinners face and what is the only thing that can save them?

In ,
Johnathan Edwards is preaching a sermon about the dangers of eternal damnation. He emphasizes
the precariousness of the human condition, first comparing sinners to being in the position of
walking on a slippery slope on a precipice over an abyss. 

Theologically,
Edwards takes a strongly Calvinist position concerning the total depravity of humans. He argues
that we are inherently corrupt by nature or Original Sin and cannot attain salvation by our own
wills or acts. Instead, we are utterly dependent on the grace of God. 

He
illustrates this sense of dependency with the graphic image of a sinner being like a loathsome
spider dangling from God's hand by a single thin thread of its web over a burning pit. The only
thing that can save sinners is the infinite mercy and compassion of God, that was manifest in
the sacrifice of Jesus.