566 DIRECTIONS AND PERSUASIONS companions, and give up myself to the guidance of the Lord. :DOCTRINE VI. The Lord condescends to reason the case with uncont verted sinners, and to ask them why they will die? A. STRANGE disposition it is, both as to the contro- versy, and as to the disputants. 1. The controversy or question propounded, Why wicked men will damn themselves? Or, Why they will rather die than turn ? Whether they have any sufficient reason for so doing? 2. The disputants are God and man : the most holy God, and wicked unconverted sinners. , Is it not a strange thing, that any man should be willing to die, and he damned? yea, that this should be the case of the greatest part of the world ? But you will say, This cannot he ; for nature desires- the pre- servation of itself. I answer, 1. It is a certain truth, that no man can will any evil as evil, but only as it has some appearance of good. Misery, as such, is desired by none. 2. But yet it is most true, that the cause why the wicked die and are damned, is because they will die and be damned. And this is true in several respects... 1. They will go the way that leads to hell, though they are told by God and man whither it leads ; and though God has so often professed in his word, that if they hold on in that way, they shall be condemned; and that they shall not be saved, unless they turn. They have the word, and the oath, of the living God for it, that if they will not turn, they shall not enter into his rest. And yet, wicked they are, and wicked they will be, let God and man say what they will. So that consequently these men are willing to be damn
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