Overall, the key aspect that allowed this specific sermon to be so impactful and influential was his consistent use of imagery by using phrases such as "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; …" Despite just only being able to read an excerpt of his sermon, his diction allowed readers to better understand the emotion and tone used which helps to see how his approach to the congregation led to the reactions with some crying, shocked, etc. And based on the reactions of those that attended this sermon, it's easy to make the assumption that they never saw God in this perspective. To them, they had been going through with this picture of God being good, unconditionally loving, and forgiving; God could never be angry enough to harm or let anything bad happen to his people. So to see God in this new light was frightening because that meant their perception of God could be completely wrong and on the off chance that they were wrong, God could remove his hand from their life, ultimately leading to their destruction. I also believe that this why his method of preaching never grew in popularity; it was too hard to believe that God could ever be that or do which Edwards described.