I.

That which follows, vers. 17, comes something nearer the DISCOURSE cause;" The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this same purpose I have raised thee up" (that is, I have made thee a sense God's king, or I have preserved thee), "that I might shew My othe glory is power in thee." But this particle-"that"-doth not always end or the signify the main end of an action, but sometimes only a con- quence of sequent of it. As Matt. ii. [14,] 15;-" He departed into Egypt, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, 'Out of Egypt have I called My son;"" without doubt Joseph's aim or end of his journey was not to fulfil prophecies, but to save the life of the Child; yet, because the fulfilling of the prophecy was a consequent of Joseph's journey, he saith, "that it might be fulfilled." So here,-"I have raised thee up, that I might shew My power." Again, though it should be granted, that this particle-"that"-did denote the intention of God to destroy Pharaoh in the Red Sea, yet it was not the antecedent intention of God, which evermore respects the good and benefit of the creature, but God's consequent intention upon the prevision of Pharaoh's obstinacy,that since he would not glorify God in obeying His word, he should glorify God [in] undergoing His judgments. Hitherto we find no eternal punishments, nor no temporal punishments, without just deserts.

III.

PART It is an act of mercy in God to give His grace freely, but to detain it is no act of injustice. So the Apostle opposeth "hardening" to "shewing of mercy." To harden is as much as not to shew mercy'.-2. Secondly, God is said to harden the 671 heart occasionally and not causally; by doing good, which incorrigible sinners make an occasion of growing worse and worse, and doing evil: as a master, by often correcting an untoward scholar, doth accidentally and occasionally harden his heart, and render him more obdurate, insomuch as he grows even to despise the rod; or as an indulgent parent by his patience and gentleness doth encourage an obstinate son to become more rebellious. So, whether we look upon God's frequent judgments upon Pharaoh, or God's iterated favours in removing and withdrawing those judgments upon Pharaoh's request, both of them in their several kinds were occasions of hardening Pharaoh's heart, the one making him more presumptuous, the other more desperately rebellious. So that which was good in it, was God's; that which was evil, was Pharaoh's. God gave the occasion, but Pharaoh was the true cause of his own obduration. This is clearly confirmed, Exod. viii. 15,-" When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart -and Exod. ix. 34,— "When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants." So Psalm cv. 25,-" He turned their hearts, so that they hated His people, and dealt subtilly with them;" that is, God blessed the children of Israel, whereupon the Egyptians did take occasion to hate them; as is plain, Exod. i. verses 7, 8, 9, 10. So God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God hardened it by not shewing mercy to Pharaoh, as He did to Nebuchadnezzar, who was as great a sinner as he; or God hardened it occasionally: but still Pharaoh was the true cause of his own obduration, by determining his own will to evil, and confirming himself in his obstinacy. So are all Ps. xcv. 8. presumptuous sinners. "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness." -3. Thirdly, God is said to harden the heart permissively, but

[Dan. iv. 34-37]

["Obduratio Dei est nolle misereri." Aug., De Divers. Quæst. Ad

Simplicianum, lib. i. qu. 2. § 15; Op. tom. vi. p. 96. E.]

I.

not operatively, nor effectively; as he who only lets loose a DISCOURSE greyhound out of the slip, is said to hound him at the hare. Will you see plainly what St. Paul intends by "hardening ?" Read vers. 22;-"What if God, willing to shew His wrath and to make His power known" (that is, by a consequent will, which in order of nature follows the prevision of sin), "endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy," &c. There is much difference between "enduring" and impelling, or inciting, "the vessels of wrath." He saith of "the vessels of mercy," that God "prepared them unto glory;" but of "the [Rom. ix. 23.] vessels of wrath," he saith only, that they were "fitted to destruction," that is, not by God, but by themselves. St. Paul saith, that God doth "endure the vessels of wrath with much long-suffering." T. H. saith, that God wills and effects by the second causes all their actions, good and bad; that He necessitateth them, and determineth them irresistibly to do those acts which He condemneth as evil, and for which He punisheth them. If doing willingly, and "enduring," if "much long-suffering" and necessitating, imply not a contrariety one to another, "reddat mihi minam Diogenes"let him that taught me logic "give me my money agains.

III.

PART able;"-to tempt is the devil's act, therefore he is called the Tempter; God tempts no man to sin, but He suffers them to be tempted; and so suffers, that He could hinder Satan, if He would; but by T. H. his doctrine, to tempt to sin, and to suffer one to be tempted to sin when it is in his power to hinder it, is all one; and so he transforms God (I write it with horror) into the devil, and makes tempting to be God's own work, and the devil to be but His instrument:-and in that noted place, Rom. ii. 4, [5], "Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, but 672 after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;"-here are as many convincing arguments in this one text against the opinion of T. H. almost as there are words; here we learn, that God is "rich in goodness," and will not punish His creatures for that which is His own act; secondly, that He "suffers" and "forbears sinners long," and doth not snatch them away by sudden death as they deserve; thirdly, that the reason of God's forbearance is to bring men to repentance;' fourthly, that "hardness" of heart and "impenitency" is not causally from God, but from ourselves; fifthly, that it is not the insufficient proposal of the means of their conversion on God's part, which is the cause of men's perdition, but their own contempt and 'despising' of these means; sixthly, that punishment is not an act of absolute dominion, but an act of "righteous judgment," whereby God renders to every man according to his own deeds, "wrath" to them and only to them who "treasure up wrath unto themselves," and "eternal life" to those who "continue patiently in welldoing." If they deserve such punishment, who only neglect the goodness and long-suffering of God, what do they who utterly deny it, and make God's doing and His suffering to be all one? I do beseech T. H. to consider, what a degree of wilfulness it is, out of one obscure text wholly misunderstood, to contradict the clear current of the whole Scripture. Of 1 Pet. iii. the same mind with St. Paul was St. Peter:-" The longsuffering of God waited once in the days of Noah;" and, "Account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation."

20.

2 Pet. iii.

15.

This is the name God gives Himself;-"The Lord, the Lord DISCOURSE God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering," &c.

I.

Exod.

Yet I do acknowledge that which T. H. saith to be com- xxxiv. 6. monly true, that he who doth permit anything to be done, which it is in his power to hinder, knowing that if he do not hinder it, it will be done, doth in some sort will it. I say, in some sort; that is, either by an antecedent will or by a consequent will, either by an operative will or by a permissive will, or he is willing to let it be done but not willing to do it. Sometimes an antecedent engagement doth cause a man to suffer that to be done, which otherwise he would not suffer. So Darius suffered Daniel to be cast into the lions' den, to [Dan. vi. make good his rash decree: so Herod suffered John Baptist Matt. xiv. 14-17.] to be beheaded, to make good his rash oath; how much more 9.] may the immutable rule of justice in God, and His fidelity in keeping His word, draw from Him the punishment of obstinate sinners, though antecedently He willeth their conversion? He loveth all His creatures well, but His own justice better. Again, sometimes a man suffereth that to be done, which he doth not will directly in itself, but indirectly for some other end, or for the producing of some greater good; as a man willeth that a putrid member be cut off from his body, to save the life of the whole; or as a judge, being desirous to save a malefactor's life, and having power to reprieve him, doth yet condemn him for example's sake, that by the death of one he may save the lives of many. Marvel not, then, if God suffer some creatures to take such courses as tend to their own ruin, so long as their sufferings do make for the greater manifestation of His glory, and for the greater benefit of His faithful servants. This is a most certain truth, that God would not suffer evil to be in the world, unless He knew how to draw good out of evil". Yet this ought not to be so understood, as if we made any priority or posteriority of time in the acts of God, but only of nature. Nor do we make the antecedent and consequent will to be contrary one to another; because the one respects man pure and uncorrupted, the other respects him as he is lapsed. The objects are the same,