"the heart that feels not is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole and made them happy." what is the purpose of the figurative language in this excerpt?

In “The Crisis No. 1” by Thomas Paine, the writer uses plenty of figurative language to persuade the audience to believe that America needed to be independent from Great Britain.  In the given particular excerpt, Paine uses figurative language to induce the reader shame for putting self-preservation (or "cowardice" as he says) above the welfare of the community or “the whole”.

There flaw is their dicks