A call to the unconverted, to turn and live

he sought the creature for the pleasing of his flesh, instead of seeking to please the Lord. With this nature or corrupt inclination we are all now born into the world; for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job xiv. 4. As a lion hath a fierce and cruel nature before he doth devour: and an adder hath a venomous nature before she stings, so in our infancy we have those sinful natures or inclinations, before we think or speak, or do amiss; and hence springeth all the sin of our lives; and not only so, but when God hath, of his mercy, provided us a remedy, even the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the Saviour of our souls, and bring us back to God again, we naturally love our present state, and are loth to be brought out of it, and therefore are set against the means of our recovery, and though custom hath taught us to thank Christ for his goodwill, yet carnal self persuadeth us to refuse his remedies, and to desire to be excused when we are commanded to take the medicines which he offereth, and are called to forsake all and follow him to God and glory.

I pray you read over this leaf again, and mark it, for in these few words you have a true description of our natural state, and consequently of a wicked man; for every man that is in this state of corrupted nature is a wicked man, and in a state of death.

By this also you are prepared to understand what it is to be converted; to which end you must further know, that the mercy of God, not willing that man should perish in his sin, provided a remedy, by causing his son to take our nature, and being, in one person, God and man, to become a mediator between God and man, and by dying for our sins on ⟨p. 20⟩the cross, to ransom us from the curse of God, and the power of the devil; and having thus redeemed us, the Father hath delivered us into his hands as his own. Hereupon the Father and the mediator do make a new law and covenant for man, not like the first, which gave life to none but the perfectly obedient, and condemned man for every sin; but Christ hath made a law of grace, or a promise of pardon and everlasting life to all that, by true repentance, and by faith in Christ, are converted unto God; like an act of oblivion, which is made by a prince to a company of rebels, on condition they will lay down arms and come in, and be loyal subjects for the time to come.