To what emotion does Edwards primarily appeal in his effort to motivate his congregation, and why is this an appropriate choice?"Sinners in the...

When you read this sermon and come upon such statements as
these:

There
is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of
God

There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men
into hell at any moment

The devil stands ready to fall upon
them [sinners], and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit
him

I would have to say that
Edwards is appealing to the basic emotion of fear and to the secondary emotion of
remorse.

In this fiery sermon, Edwards was trying to fire
up (no pun intended) a luke-warm audience who, he felt, did not appreciate or understand
the extent of God's grace in forgiving mankind for his sins. So, in this sermon he first
begins by trying to scare the congregation into recognizing that they are vile sinners
in need of repentence and forgiveness. Then, when he points out their extreme
debasement, he gets into the part that in spite of the horror of sin that all men
possess as part of their sin nature, God because of his all-encompassing love for man,
provided the means to save man from his sin. The only requirement is that man have
faith.

Edwards' choice in appealing to fear was considered
"appropriate" for the time in which it was given - Puritan New England. Edwards was
quite concerned that there might have been unsaved people in his audience. Although some
people can be scared into salvation, most people are attracted to saving faith by
focusing on God's love for man, so in modern times, people read this sermon from a
different perspective. If one understands that Edwards was a passionate minister that
cared about what happened to his congregation if they did not come to faith, however,
then his choice is understandably appropriate to achieve his goals. Better to be scared
into heaven than coddled into hell.