A Call to the Unconverted

And here you must observe, that in the sense of the Text, a wicked man, and a converted man are contraries. No man is a wicked man that is converted; and no man is a converted man that is wicked: So that to be a wicked man, and to be an unconverted man, is all one. And therefore in opening one we shall open both.

Before I can tell you what either Wickedness or Conversion is, I must go to the bottom, and fetch up the matter from the beginning.

It pleased the great Creator of the world, to make three sorts of living creatures: Angels he made pure Spirits without flesh: and therefore he made them only for Heaven, and not for to dwell on earth. Brutes were made flesh without immortal souls: and therefore they were made only for earth and not for Heaven. Man is of a middle nature between both, as partaking of both flesh and Spirit; and therefore he was made both for Earth and Heaven. But as his flesh is made to be but a servant to his Spirit, so is he made for earth but as his passage or way to Heaven, and not that this should be his home or happiness. The blessed state that man was ⟨p. 29⟩made for, was to behold the Glorious Majesty of the Lord, and to praise him among his holy Angels; and to love him and be filled with his Love for ever. And as this was the End that man was made for, so God did give him means that were fitted to the attaining of it. These means were principally two. First the right Inclination and Disposition of the mind of man. Secondly the right ordering of his life and practice. For the first, God suited the Disposition of man unto his End; giving him such knowledge of God as was fit for his present state, and an Heart Disposed and Inclined to God, in holy Love. But yet he did not fix or confirm him in this condition; but having made him a free agent, he left him in the hands of his own free-will. For the second, God did that which belonged to him; that is, he gave man a perfect Law, requiring