If a congregation could “hear and stand it out” under such preaching, there would probably be little hope for the English language as an instrument of salvation. The development and ultimate deterioration of the sermon form in Edwards’ hands will be discussed shortly, but now an attempt must be made to define the formal limits of the Edwardsean sermon at the zenith of its development during the late 1720s, the 1730s, and the very early 1740s (and whenever Edwards had