In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," to whom does the term "natural men" refer?

The "natural
men" to whom Edwards refers seem to be those individuals who attempt to reach heaven
through good behavior and adherence to religious practices or rituals rather than through an
acceptance of Jesus Christ. He says,

whatever some have
imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest
seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in
religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of
obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction. So that thus it is that
natural men held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have
deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it.

These natural men are already sentenced to hell, and God, Edwards claims, is ready to
allow them to fall into the pits of hell. Until these natural men believe in and accept Christ
as their savior, they will remain naturalwhich, here, has quite a negative and in a state of
sinfulness. These men may take care to do and say all the things that a good person does and
says, but, without a real opening of one's heart to Christ, one cannot hope to avoid hell,
according to Edwards.