as the fact that the obduracy which called down these chastisements was itself the work of the Most High. By God Himself it had been declared to Moses beforehand, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall not let the people go." Of God Himself it is expressly and repeatedly asserted by His prophet, "And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and the hearts of his servants." And in the words of the text we find the yet more explicit and, if possible, the yet more perplexing declaration that Pharaoh was absolutely raised up and placed, or continued, in his appropriate situation as a proper subject on whom, and at whose expense, the power of God might be displayed in the severest inflictions of His displeasure. deed for this cause have I raised thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” " In very This is a hard saying, unquestionably, and one which, as it has been generally understood, appears impossible to be reconciled with our natural and instinctive ideas of the justice and goodness of the Most High, no less than with many other and equally forcible passages of Scripture in which His dealings with mankind are spoken of and vindicated. To cause a man to sin, and then to punish him for sinning; to send warnings which are not even designed to produce an effect on him who receives them, and to create any sentient being for 1 Exod. iv. 21. no other purpose than to be guilty and miserable; this were a conduct which, as it would be horribly wicked in a finite intelligence, so it cannot without blasphemy be ascribed for a moment to the All-just, the All-wise, the All-merciful Father of nature! Nor will the answer suffice which is sometimes rendered, in the words of St. Paul when speaking on a very different subject, namely, that we are all in the power of God as clay in the hands of the potter; that He may frame "one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour';" and that while some of His creatures may be originally set apart by His will for honour and happiness, there may be others destined by the same free pleasure to set forth His power and terrour. For, in the first place, this argument, understand it as we please, will not apply to the difficulty under discussion, since the question is not of possibility or abstract right, but of probability, of analogy, of conformity to other declarations of God Himself. We do not ask whether God has the power, but whether He has the will to pursue the line of conduct imputed to Him; and if that conduct appears to us unjust or unmerciful, we are naturally led to conclude that, though God may do any thing which pleases Him, He will not please to do that which is repugnant to those attributes of His nature under which we know Him best, and by which He has most clearly revealed Himself to our adoration and our affection. Rom. ix. 21. as the fact that the obduracy which called down these chastisements was itself the work of the Most High. By God Himself it had been declared to Moses beforehand, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall not let the people go." Of God Himself it is expressly and repeatedly asserted by His prophet, "And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and the hearts of his servants." And in the words of the text we find the yet more explicit and, if possible, the yet more perplexing declaration that Pharaoh was absolutely raised up and placed, or continued, in his appropriate situation as a proper subject on whom, and at whose expense, the power of God might be displayed in the severest inflictions of His displeasure. "In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” This is a hard saying, unquestionably, and one which, as it has been generally understood, appears impossible to be reconciled with our natural and instinctive ideas of the justice and goodness of the Most High, no less than with many other and equally forcible passages of Scripture in which His dealings with mankind are spoken of and vindicated. To cause a man to sin, and then to punish him for sinning; to send warnings which are not even designed to produce an effect on him who receives them, and to create any sentient being for 1 Exod. iv. 21. no other purpose than to be guilty and miserable; this were a conduct which, as it would be horribly wicked in a finite intelligence, so it cannot without blasphemy be ascribed for a moment to the All-just, the All-wise, the All-merciful Father of nature! Nor will the answer suffice which is sometimes rendered, in the words of St. Paul when speaking on a very different subject, namely, that we are all in the power of God as clay in the hands of the potter; that He may frame "one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour";" and that while some of His creatures may be originally set apart by His will for honour and happiness, there may be others destined by the same free pleasure to set forth His power and terrour. For, in the first place, this argument, understand it as we please, will not apply to the difficulty under discussion, since the question is not of possibility or abstract right, but of probability, of analogy, of conformity to other declarations of God Himself. We do not ask whether God has the power, but whether He has the will to pursue the line of conduct imputed to Him; and if that conduct appears to us unjust or unmerciful, we are naturally led to conclude that, though God may do any thing which pleases Him, He will not please to do that which is repugnant to those attributes of His nature under which we know Him best, and by which He has most clearly revealed Himself to our adoration and our affection. ! Rom. ix. 21. seek some different solution of the present problem than that which is usually drawn from the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah. Accordingly, there are others who maintain that when God is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart, nothing more is intended than that He suffered him to harden his own heart, that He left him to the natural consequences of his own unbridled pride and passion, and did not interpose with His gracious influences to soften and subdue that corruption of his nature which of itself was sufficient, without further aid, to overpower not only his better principles, but his natural prudence and discretion. And this interpretation they support by several remarkable passages in the same chapters of Exodus to which I have already referred, and which ascribe to Pharaoh himself and his own agency that induration which, as we have seen, is in others ascribed to the Lord. Thus, it is said of Pharaoh, in the seventh chapter and the twenty-third verse, that "he did not set his heart" to profit by the warnings which had been given him. It is said in the eighth chapter, that "when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them1;" and at the end of the same chapter, that "Pharaoh hardened his heart" after the plague of the flies also. Nay more; they urge, that in the only place in the seventh chapter where, according to our translation, the Lord is said to have "hardened Pharaoh's heart," the original and all the best 1 1 Ver. 15. 2 Ver. 32. 3 Ver. 13. |