to conclude that it is only our ignorance of the Eastern Language and Phrase which makes them obscure and difficult to us than to expound them to such a sense as contradicts all the rest of the Bible But I do not intend this for an Answer or as some will call it an Evasion but shall consider these Texts particularly And the first place relates to God's hardening Pharaoh's heart that he should not let the People of Israel go notwithstanding all the signs and wonders which Moses wrought in Egypt 4. Exod. 21. Where God expresly tells Moses that he would harden Pharaoh's heart and in the Story it self it is several times expressed that God did harden Pharaoh's heart and he who hardens the heart seems to be the efficient Cause of all those Sins which such a hard heart commits Now rightly to understand this which has given so much trouble to Divines there are many things to be considered Hardness of heart is a Metaphorical expression and signifies such a firmness and obstinacy of temper or resolution as will yield to no motives or perswasions that will no more receive any impressions than a hard and impenetrable Rock And therefore to harden the heart is to give it such a stiffness and obstinacy as will not yield But then there are several ways of hardening mens hearts and some of them very Innocent and Holy as well as Just and before we charge the Divine Providence upon this account we must know in what way God hardens immediately to infuse into mens hearts an unrelenting hardness and obstinacy in a sinful course is inconsistent with the Holiness of Providence and would in the most proper sense make God the Author of Sin but though God says he would harden Pharaoh he does not say that he would infuse hardness into Pharaoh's heart For we may observe That men who have first hardened themselves take the most innocent occasions to grow harder nay are hardened by such usage as would either break or soften other men And those who treat them in such a manner as their wicked hearts abuse to harden themselves may be said to harden them as in common speech we charge those with undoing and hardening their Children and Servants who have spoiled them by too much indulgence or by too great severity and this is the account that Origen gives of it And indeed when men are said to harden themselves as Pharaoh is often said to harden his own heart and yet God is said to harden them there can be no other account given of it but this that men take occasion from what God does take occasion where no occasion was given to harden themselves as St. Paul observes the Iews did from God's patience and long-suffering 2. Rom 4 5. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance i.e. should lead thee to repentance not harden thee in Sin though it have another effect through thy own wickedness But after thy hardness and impenitent heart growest more hard and impenitent by God's forbearance and treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God And thus God hardened Pharaoh or thus Pharaoh took occasion to harden himself from those Judgments which ought to have softened him and God foreseeing that this would be the effect of it says I will harden Pharaoh's heart not I will infuse hardness into him but I will do such things as I certainly know his hard and wicked heart will improve into new occasions and new degrees of hardness For it is no reason either for God or men to forbear doing what Wisdom and Justice and Goodness direct to be done because hardened Sinners will harden themselves the more by it And that this is the truth of the case appears from the whole Story That which hardened Pharaoh and made him so resolved not to part with Israel was the great advantage he made of their Service and Bondage which made him impatient to think of sending away a people which were so useful to him To conquer this obstinate humour God sends Moses to deliver Israel with a mighty arm and out-stretched hand Moses wrought such mighty Wonders and inflicted such miraculous and terrible Judgments on Egypt as any one would have thought the most proper means not to have hardened but to have broken and subdued the most hardened hearts but this had a contrary effect upon a hardened Pharaoh and it is visible what it was that hardened him Some of these Signs and Wonders were imitated by the Magicians as turning their Rods into Serpents and Water into Blood and bringing Frogs upon the Land and upon this he hardened his heart though the Plague of Frogs was so grievous that it made him somewhat relent and promise to let the People go and Sacrifice unto the Lord if the Frogs might be removed but then God's goodness in removing this Plague hardened him as it is expresly observed That when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardened his heart 8. Exod. 15. And thus it was in the succeeding Judgments while any judgment was upon him he yielded and promised fair to let the people go that had any one of those Judgments continued on him till he had parted with Israel he had certainly sent them away long before but when he saw one Judgment removed after another he thought there would be an end of them at last and it were better to endure a while than to part with Israel and thus God hardened his heart and he hardened his own heart till the Death of all the First-born put him and his Servants and all the People into such a terrible fright that they were glad to get rid of Israel to save their own Lives And to compleat all God still hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue after Israel that he might overthrow him and all his Host in the Red Sea And for that end God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the red sea that Pharaoh might say They are intangled in the land the wilderness hath shut them in and it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people and they said Why have we done this that we have let Israel go from serving us 14. Exod. 2 3 4 5. The report of their flying and the apprehension of their being intangled in the Wilderness made Pharaoh and his Servants quickly forget what they had suffered in Egypt and think of nothing but the loss of the Service of Israel which hardened them to a new pursuit and was ordered by God to that end that he might be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his Host. This is the account the Scripture gives us of God's hardening Pharaoh's heart which contains nothing that unbecomes a Wise and a Holy Being For though it can never become a Holy God to infuse hardness into mens hearts yet when men have hardened themselves and will abuse all the Wise methods of Providence to harden themselves and are now ripe for destruction it very much becomes a Just and Righteous God to exercise them with such Providences as he knows will still harden them till they make themselves such infamous examples of Wickedness as may deserve a more glorious and exemplary Vengeance Which is another thing to be considered in the case of Pharaoh and
very necessary to the full understanding this difficult case of God's hardening mens hearts God had peremptorily decreed not only to deliver Israel but to punish Egypt both King and People for the cruel oppression of Israel And therefore he might without any more solemnity have destroyed Pharaoh his People and Land and have carried Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand But when they had deserved to be Punished and Destroyed and God had resolved to Punish them the manner of their Punishment was at the free disposal of the Divine Wisdom and therefore he chose to Punish them in such a way as might make the Glory and Power of the God of Israel known to the World And this is the very account which God himself gives why he took such a course with Pharaoh as he foresaw would harden and confirm him in his resolutions of not parting with Israel when he could have forced him at the expence of fewer Miracles to have sent them away if he had so pleased I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. The same thing he tells Pharaoh I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up have all this time preserved thee and not cut thee off for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth 9. Exod. 14 15 16. And this reason God gives why he hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue Israel I will be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord 14. Exod. 4. This is diligently to be observed to vindicate the Holiness and Justice of Providence For though God infuses no hardness into mens hearts yet if he exercise them with such Providences as he foresees will harden them and does this with an intention and design to harden them this signifies his Will to harden them and such a moral Efficiency in using hardening Providences as will as certainly harden them as if he had infused hardness into them And this makes little difference whether God hardens men by external Providences or by an internal Operation on their minds when he intends such Providences to harden them and knows that they will effectually do it Now I readily grant that tho God infused no hardness into Pharaoh's heart nor did any thing which unbecomes a holy God to do yet he did intend to harden him and did intend to harden him on purpose to multiply his Judgments on Egypt and to destroy him and all his Host in the Red Sea for this is so plainly expressed that we cannot deny it Nay I readily grant that the Providence of God would be justly chargeable with mens Sins did he without any respect to the merit and desert of the Persons by such insensible methods betray them into sin with an intention to harden them For what man is there of such a firm and constant vertue as to be able to resist all Temptations which a long series of Providences chosen and directed for that purpose by a Divine Wisdom could bring him into But yet when men have sinned themselves into such a hardened state as to deserve to be destroyed and when God is so far provoked by their Sins as to resolve to destroy them it becomes the Wisdom and the Justice of God without any impeachment of his Holiness to harden men by external Events and Appearances not in Sin which can never become a Holy God but in such ruinous Courses as their own wicked hearts betray them to and as will bring inevitable ruin on them And this is the true resolution on this Case 1. That God never hardens any men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them 2. That then he does not harden them in Sin but in such Ruinous Counsels as their own Sins betray them to 3. That all this is done not by the natural or moral efficacy but by their own wicked abuse of the Divine Providence 4. To compleat all When God has thus determined to destroy any Person or People he many times inflicts on them a penal blindness and infatuation not to see the things which concern their peace These four Particulars contain a full and easy account of this perplext Doctrine of God's hardening mens hearts and therefore I shall speak distinctly but briefly to them 1. That God never hardens men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them This must be laid as the foundation of all for by what means soever God hardens men how innocent soever they may appear if he intends to harden them not because they deserve and he has determined to destroy them but only that they may deserve to be destroyed and that he may with some fair appearance of Justice destroy them it would be impossible to satisfy equal and impartial Judges of the Justice and Holiness of Providence But if men have hardened themselves in Sin beyond all the ordinary methods of recovery and have so provoked a good and merciful God that he gives them over to ruin and destruction then by what means soever they are hardened which are not directly sinful there can be no just reason to question either the Justice or Goodness or Holiness of God upon this account For when men have sinned to that degree as to deserve immediate destruction and to provoke God to pass a final Sentence on them God may either immediately destroy them or keep them in that hardened state like condemned Malefactors reserved in Chains for a more publick and solemn Execution And this is all that is meant by God's hardening men and this all mankind must allow to be just and holy This was the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians who
A DISCOURSE Concerning the Divine Providence By WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties IMPRIMATUR Maii 9. 1693. Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet street MDCXCIV TO THE QUEEN's Most Excellent Majesty May it please Your Majesty TO Accept this Treatise which did the Composition answer the Subject would recommend it self to the Perusal of Princes who are the peculiar Care and the great Ministers of Providence For it is this Good Providence which is the Security of the Royal Throne and the most perfect Patern of a Just and Equal Government without Contempt of the meanest or Partiality to the greatest That Experience YOUR MAJESTY has had of a Kind and Watchful Providence and that constant dependence the most Potent Monarchs have on the Divine Protection especially in the great Shakings and Convulsions of the World I hope may excuse this Dedication as neither improper nor unseasonable And may the same Good Providence which has advanced YOUR MAJESTIES to the Throne and so signally preserved the King from the greatest Dangers still preserve Your Sacred Persons establish Your Throne and deliver You from all Your Enemies Which is the hearty and daily Prayer of YOUR MAJESTIES Most Humble most Obedient and most Dutiful Subject and Servant WILLIAM SHERLOCK The CONTENTS THE Introduction Page 1 Chap. 1. THE necessary Connexion between the belief of a God and of a Providence 3 The World can be no more governed than made by chance Ibid. An Infinite and Eternal Mind which sees and knows all things must govern the Word 5 He who made the World cannot be unconcerned for his Creatures 7 No Philosophers except the Epicureans who acknowledged a Deity denied a Providence 8 The same Arguments which prove the Being of a God prove a Providence 9 The strength of Atheism consists in contradicting the Vniversal Reason of Mankind 11 Chap. 2. THE general Notion of Providence and particularly concerning a preserving Providence 16 The Nature of Preservation as distinguisht from a governing Providence Ibid. The first Act of Preservation in upholding and preserving the Being and Natures of all things 17 The second Act of Preservation God's Co-operation and Concourse with Creatures in all their Actions 21 Some difficulties of Providence answered as God's Concourse with Creatures in sinful Actions 25 Concerning the Eternity of Punishments 28 Some Practical Inferences 31 Chap. 3. COncerning God's Governing Providence 33 God's Government of Causes and of Events 34 God's Government of Natural Causes and wherein it consists Ib. God's Government of Accidental Causes or what we call Chance and Accident 39 God's Government of Moral Causes or Free Agents 47 The difference between God's Government of Men considered as reasonable Creatures and as Instruments of Providence 48 Concerning God's Government of mens Minds their Wills and Passions Page 51 Concerning God's Government of mens Actions 54 God's Government of Good and Bad men more particularly considered 57 God's Government of Events 59 What is meant by Events in this Question 60 Wherein God's Government of Events consists 61 Concerning Gods Permission Ibid The difference between God's Government of all Events and Necessity and Fate 66 That the Exercise of a particular Providence consists in the Government of all Events 68 Chap. 4. COncerning the Sovereignty of Providence 73 Concerning God's Absolute Power 75 That true Absolute Power can do no wrong explained at large Ib. The Vnsearchable Wisdom of Providence 85 Infinite Wisdom can do no wrong 88 That the Wisdom of Providence must be as unaccountable as the Wisdom of the Creation 91 That the wise Government of the Word requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence 97 That we are ignorant of a great many things without the knowledg of which it is impossible to understand the reasons of Providence 110 In what cases the Vnsearchable Wisdom of God is a reasonable Answer to the Difficulties of Providence 123 Chap. 5. THe Iustice and Righteousness of Providence 137 That the Iustice of Providence does not consist in hindring all Acts of Injustice and Violence 138 God may do that very justly which men cannot do without great Injustie 139 What the Nature and Exercise of God's Iustice requires 141 What Acts of Iustice the present Government of this World requires Page 147 The Account the Scripture gives us of God's Iustice and Righteousness 150 Chap. 6. THE Holiness of Providence 161 What the Holiness of Government requires Ib. What the Holiness of God's Providence does not require of him 168 God is not the Cause and Author of Sin 175 The Divine Prescience does not destroy the Liberty of Human Actions 178 God decrees no mens sins 181 Some Texts of Scripture considered which seem to make God the Author of sin 183 Concerning God's hardning Pharaoh's heart Ib. Some other Texts considered which seem to charge God with the sins of men 200 Chap. 7. THE Goodness of Providence 214 Mistakes concerning the Nature of God's Goodness 216 The difference between Absolute Goodness and Iustice and the Goodness and Iustice of Discipline 220 That God exercises all Acts of Goodness which a state of Trial and Discipline will admit 221 Another Mistake concerning the Nature of Good and Evil and what Good and Evil is in a state of Discipline 226 Another Mistake about the Nature of Government and what Goodness is required in the Government of the World 233 Two Objections against the Goodness of Providence answered 1. From the many Miseries which are in the world 238 A second Objection is God's partial and unequal Care of his creatures 265 Chap. 8. THE Wisdom of Providence 269 The Wisdom of Providence considered in some great Events recorded in Scripture 270 The Destruction of the World by Noah's Flood Page 271 Concerning the Confusion of Languages and the Dispersion of Mankind over all the earth 285 God's chusing Abraham and his Posterity for his peculiar People 289 Concerning the removal of Jacob and his Family into Egypt 299 The Oppression of Israel in Egypt 300 The Miracles wrought by Moses in Egypt 302 God's delivering the Law from Mount Sinai 309 All that came out of Egypt excepting Joshua and Caleb died in the Wilderness 311 The frequent Relapses of Israel into Idolatry 313 Concerning the Captivities and Dispersions of Israel especially their Captivity in Babylon 319 In what sense Christ came in the Fulness of Time 326 The Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans 328 The Wisdom of Providence in some more common and ordinary Events 331 That God rewards or punishes men in their Posterity 332 God's punishing sin with sin 339 God's disappointing both our Hopes and Fears 340 God's deferring the deliverance of good men and the punishment of the wicked to the utmost extremity 341 Concerning sudden Changes and Revolutions 343 The wise mixture of Mercy and Iudgment 344 Chap. 9. THE Duties
That the Worship of the One Supreme God should be preserved entire among them or that if they did decline to Idolatry they should be visibly punished for it 4. That the Fame of this People and of their God should by degrees be known over all the earth Now not to take notice of the Mystical Reasons of God's Providences towards Israel which is a very large and nice Argument and not so proper to my present Design if most of the Remarkable Providences wherewith they were exercised did manifestly serve some one or more of these ends we have a visible Reason of them not only sufficient to justify Providence but to give us a ravishing Prospect of the Divine Wisdom I shall begin with the Removal of Iacob and his Family into Egypt the Occasion of which is well known but the Reason of it is not so well considered For it may seem strange that when God had promised Abraham to bestow the Land of Canaan on his Posterity for an Inheritance he should remove them out of the Land of Canaan into Egypt there to continue many years under grievous Oppression before he thought fit to deliver them and to give them Possession of the Promised Land But to understand the wise Design of this we must remember That God was to give a visible Demonstration to the world that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and given them the Land of Canaan for their Inheritance and it was not so agreeable to this Design that they should increase insensibly in Canaan and by degrees dispossess the old Inhabitants for there had been nothing singular and remarkable in this and therefore they were to be a great Nation before God so publickly and visibly owned them for his People and visibly bestowed an Inheritance on them and it was necessary they should have some place to encrease and multiply in till God thought fit to transplant them into the Promised Land For this purpose God chose the Land of Egypt and sent Ioseph before-hand thither and advanced him to Pharaoh's Throne to prepare a Reception for them And a very quiet and easy Retreat they found there for many years till Ioseph was dead and all the good offices he had done both for King and People forgot and the prodigious encrease of Israel made the Kings of Egypt jealous of their Numbers and Power and then they began to oppress that People with hard labour and cruel bondage till the time appointed for their Deliverance was come This Oppression of Israel may seem a very severe Providence but there were some very Wise Ends it served 1. To make the People willing to leave Egypt where they suffered such hard Bondage for whoever observes how ready they were upon all occasions to talk of returning into Egypt how they longed after the Onions and Garlick and Flesh-pots of Egypt notwithstanding all the hardships they suffered there will be apt to think that had they enjoyed Ease and Prosperity all the Miracles which Moses wrought would no more have persuaded Israel to have left Egypt than they could persuade Pharaoh to let them go 2dly The Advantage Pharaoh made of the Service of Israel made him obstinately resolve not to part with them and his cruel Oppression made it very just for God to punish him and all Egypt with him and this occasioned all those Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt by the hands of Moses whereby he visibly owned Israel for his People and made his own Power and Glory known 3dly The great proneness of Israel to Idolatry even when God had delivered them out of Egypt is too plain a proof that they had learnt the Egyptian Idolatries while they lived there the Golden Calf being as some Learned Men not without reason conclude an imitation of the Egyptian Apis And this made it very just for God to punish their Egyptian Idolatry with an Egyptian Bondage especially considering that this was the most likely way to give check to their Idolatry and to make them hate the Egyptian Gods like their Egyptian Task-masters and to remember the God of their Fathers and his Promise and Covenant to bestow the Land of Canaan on them 4thly The Oppression of Israel in Egypt was an effectual means to keep them a distinct and separate People This was absolutely necessary when God had chosen them for his peculiar People that they should be preserved from incorporating with any other People and this God took early care of by placing them by themselves in the Land of Goshen where they grew up into a distinct Body from Egypt which made Pharaoh so jealous of them when they began to multiply and that made him oppress them and that oppression preserved the distinction which a kind and friendly usage might in time have destroyed for it is rarely seen that two People can live amicably together in the same Countrey and under the same Prince without mingling and incorporating with each other till they forget all distinction between Nations and Families These are wise Reasons why God suffered the hard Bondage of Israel in Egypt and those mighty Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt were the most effectual means both to convince the Israelites of God's peculiar care of them and to convince the world that Israel was God's peculiar People and that the God of Israel was the Supream Lord and Governor of the World This account God himself gives of it 6. Exod. 6 7 8. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burthens of the Egyptians And I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out from under the burthens of the Egyptians And as for the Egyptians God tells Moses I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the Land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. This is the first time we read of such Signs and Wonders as these and probably they are the first Miracles of this nature that ever were wrought and it becomes us to contemplate the Wisdom of Providence in it for the wisdom of Miracles and the surprize and wonder of them are two very different things Miracles offer violence to the order of Nature and would be no commendation of the Wisdom of Providence should we consider them as Causes not as Signs It would be a reproach to the Wisdom of Providence to say that God wrought all those Miracles in Egypt because he could not have punished the Egyptians nor
had so grievously oppressed Israel that God was resolved to punish them for it And therefore he sent Moses to inflict a great many Miraculous Judgments on them not intending thereby to convince Pharaoh who had hardened himself against the power of Miracles to convince him and whom he had resolved to destroy but only to lay Egypt waste and to take a signal Vengeance upon that Cruel Persecutor by overthrowing him and his Host in the Red Sea And therefore he so ordered the execution of these Judgments that the hardened heart of Pharaoh should grow more hardened by them Thus when God had determined to cut off Ahab as his grievous Sins had long before deserved he intended to harden him to go up to Ramoth Gilead and fall there and for that purpose suffered a lying Spirit to enter into his Prophets to encourage the King in that Fatal Expedition and as God had foretold they did prevail against Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord who plainly told him that he should fall in it 1 Kings 22. Thus when God was so provoked with the Sins of Iudah that he had resolved to deliver them into the hands of the Chaldaeans who should destroy their City and Temple and carry them captive to Babylon he pronounced this hardening Sentence on them Go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed What this means ye shall hear more hereafter all that I observe at present is That this Sentence was not pronounced against them till God had resolved to carry them into captivity and to lay their City and Countrey desolate as the Prophet tells us in the next Verse Then said I Lord how long And he answered until the cities be wasted without Inhabitants and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate 6. Isaiah 9 10 11. And this was the state of the Iews in our Saviour's days when God had determined the final destruction of the Iewish Nation their City Temple and Polity for their great Sin in crucifying their Messias as Christ tells us 23. Matth. 37 38 39. O Ierusalem Ierusalem Thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord 19. Luke 41 42 43 44. And when he came near he beheld the city and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another Because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation Now with respect to this final Sentence which God had pronounced against them though he delayed the execution of it for forty years St. Paul applies to them the Case of a hardened Pharaoh whom God spared also a great while as he did them though he had determined to destroy him by a signal overthrow to shew his power and that his name might be declared throughout all the earth And there was no reason to quarrel with God though he delayed to destroy them for some years after he had determined to destroy them to make them also a more remarkable Example of a just Vengeance and more glorious Power What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction That is delays for many years the Execution of those whom he has decreed to destroy for their great sins by an irreversible Sentence For such only are the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction 9. Rom. 17 22. And for the same reason he applies to them the Prophesy of Isaiah concerning the judicial blindness and deafness of the Iewish Nation when God had determined to deliver them into the hands of the King of Babylon which was a Prophesy of them also and received its full accomplishment in the final destruction of Ierusalem by the Romans 28. Acts 26 27. So that it is plain from all these Examples and I know no Example in all the Scripture to the contrary that God never hardens men till he has first determined to punish or to destroy them And I shall only add That this hardening which is the effect of God's Decree to punish or to destroy relates only to some Temporal Evils and Calamities which God intends to bring on them not to the Eternal Miseries of the next world God is never said to harden any men that he may eternally damn them that is wholly owing to their own hard and impenitent hearts but God does sometimes harden men in order to take a more exemplary Vengeance on them in this world which serves the wise Ends of Providence and makes his Power and Glory known 2dly This will more evidently appear if we consider That God is never said to harden any men in sin but he only hardens and confirms them in such Ruinous Counsels as will bring that destruction on them which God has ordained and determined for them They harden themselves in sin and make it wise and just for God to punish or destroy them and when God resolves to do so then sometimes he hardens them in such Courses as will bring a Terrible Vengeance on them I need instance only in the Case of Pharaoh which is the most express Text we have for God's hardening men Now what did God harden Pharaoh in Did he harden him against believing Moses and those Miracles which he wrought in the Name and by the Power of the God of Israel No such matter there is no such thing said but he hardened him not to let the People go Pharaoh hardened himself against believing Moses and the Miracles he wrought against owning and submitting to the Power and Sovereign Authority of the God of Israel though when he felt the Judgments inflicted on him they were so uneasy as to make him relent and to promise to send Israel away But his great concernment was how to keep Israel and to get rid of these Plagues and his firm Resolution was never to part with Israel as long as he had any hopes that he might keep them safely Now though it was indeed a very great evil to disbelieve Moses and to disobey God's Command attested and confirmed by
Miracles yet separated from this it was no moral evil not to part with Israel who had now been the Subjects of Egypt for above Two hundred years And therefore when the Dispute was not about believing and obeying God and Moses which Pharaoh had no regard to but only whether he should let Israel go to avoid these Plagues which he suffered for their sake though God did not harden him in his infidelity and disobedience yet he did harden him against parting with Israel that is he hardened him not in sin for the infidelity and disobedience which was the only sinfulness of it was wholly his own but he hardened him in the most Ruinous Counsel he could possibly have taken which would bring new Plagues on Egypt and end in his own final Ruin This was the case of Ahab God did resolve to send him to Ramoth Gilead to fall there and suffered a lying Spirit to enter into the Mouths of his Prophets and to harden him in that expedition against the Prophetick Threatnings of Micaiah that all things considered it may be said that God perswaded and that God hardened Ahab to go to Ramoth Gilead Now suppose this yet it is not to harden him in Sin for it was no Sin to go to Fight against Ramoth Gilead but it was only to harden him in a dangerous attempt and which God intended should be fatal to him A great many Instances of this nature may be given where God hardens men in such courses as shall and are intended by God to prove either a very sore punishment to them or their utter Ruin but there is no one instance can be given of Gods persuading or tempting or hardening men in any thing which is in its own nature evil And were this well considered it would answer and shame a great many ignorant Objections against Providence 3dly But we must farther observe That when God does thus harden men in Ruinous Counsels on purpose to punish or destroy them he does nothing which has either any natural or moral efficacy to harden them but by their own wickedness they abuse the Providence of God to harden themselves This I have particularly shewn in the Case of Pharaoh Those Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt and that undeniable Proof that they were sent by God in that they were inflicted and removed at the word of Moses and the Goodness of God in removing one Judgment after another at his request would have convinced and softned other men but hardened him St. Paul tell us That the natural end and use of God's Patience and Long-suffering is to lead us to repentance and therefore when it hardens some men in sinful and destructive Courses as we too often see it does there is no reason to charge this on the Patience of God but on the Wickedness of men God permitted a lying Spirit to enter into Ahab's Prophets to persuade him to go against Ramoth-Gilead and though God might very justly have left him in the hands of those False Prophets of his own making and chusing yet he sends his own Prophet Micaiah whom all Israel knew to be the Lord's Prophet to assure him That if he went against Ramoth-Gilead he should perish there And therefore God did not deceive Ahab but he deceived himself by preferring the Prophets of Baal before the Lord's Prophet which was owing to his own wicked Idolatrous heart God never deceives or hardens any men by the external Events and Appearances of Providence but those whose own lusts and wicked hearts deceive and harden them There is always enough even in those Providences which men abuse to harden themselves to have reclaimed and softened them if they would have made a wise use of it And when men have sinned themselves into such a hardened state as to forfeit the protection of Providence God may do what is wise and just and holy though he knows that they will abuse it to their own ruin and intends to bring ruin on them by it And it is a glorious vindication of the Wisdom and Goodness and Holiness of God when all the world shall see that such mens ruin is wholly owing to themselves to their wicked abuse of all those wise and gracious Methods which would have reclaimed and saved them if they would have been reclaimed and saved 4thly To understand the full and comprehensive notion of God's hardening men we must observe farther That when God has been so far provoked as to resolve the final destruction of any Person or People he many times inflicts on them a judicial blindness and infatuation which betrays them to such foolish Counsels as must inevitably prove their ruin That God many times does this the Scripture witnesseth He leadeth counsellors away spoiled and maketh the judges fools He removeth away the speech of the trusty in whose Counsel men used to confide and taketh away the understanding of the aged He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way That is entangles and perplexes their Counsels They grope in the dark without light and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man To reel from one Resolution to another in great uncertainty what to do 12. Iob 17 20 24 25. Thus 19. Isaiah 11 12 13 14. Surely the princes of Zoan are fools the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become bruitish How say ye unto Pharaoh I am the son of the wise the son of ancient kings Where are they where are thy wise men and let them tell thee now and let them know what the Lord of Host hath purposed upon Egypt The princes of Zoan are become fools the princes of Noph are deceived they have also seduced Egypt even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit We have a plain Example of this in Absalom whom God resolved to punish for his Rebellion against David his King and Father David had prayed that God would turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness and accordingly God so ordered it as to defeat the good Counsel of Ahitophel by the Advice of Hushai And the reason of it is given For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahitophel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom 2 Sam. 17. 14. This makes men as hard as they are blind they mistake their true interest flatter themselves with vain hopes run themselves into the most apparent and inevitable dangers without seeing them themselves though every body else sees them And something of this nature we must own in Pharaoh's Case For without such an infatuation it is impossible to conceive that he should have persisted so long in his Resolution not to part with Israel though it were to the utter ruin
and desolation of his Countrey much less that he should have pursued them into the Red Sea whose fluid Walls threatned him with immediate destruction And this I take to be that blindness which God threatens against Iudah 6. Isaiah 9 10. Go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed For here is a double blindness taken notice of in the Text one which they brought upon themselves another which God threatens to inflict on them They did hear but not understand they did see but not perceive that is They stopt their own ears and shut their own eyes against all the Adomonitions and Reproofs of God's Prophets For thus our Saviour expounds it as their own act and wilful voluntary blindness 13. Matth. 14 15. And in them is fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah for a Prophesy it was as it concerned the Iews in our Saviour's days though it was a description of the actual deafness and blindness of the Iews in the Prophet's days which saith By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them And thus St. Paul represents it 28. Acts 26 27. This is their sinful blindness and deafness which is wholly owing to themselves and for the punishment of which God threatens them with a penal and judicial blindness For when God commands the Prophet to make their heart fat and their ears heavy and to shut their eyes it can signify nothing else but his passping a final Decree and Sentence of Blindness and Deafness on them Not such a Blindness as should betray them to and harden them in sin God may leave men in such a state of Blindness when they have wilfully blinded and hardened themselves but he never inflicts it But such a Blindness as would betray them into that ruin and destruction whcih God had so justly decreed for them For this Blindness and Deafness which was inflicted on them in the Prophet's days was in order to their Captivity in Babylon and the destruciton of their City and Temple by the Chaldaeans that in our Saviour's days was in order to their final destruction by the Romans and our Saviour tells us what kind of Blindness was inflicted on them that the things belonging to their peace which would preserve their Nation from being destroyed were now hid from their eyes 19. Luke 42 And the Story verifies this For certainly never was there a greater infatuation upon any People than upon the Iews at both times who forced both the Chaldaeans and Romans to destroy them whether they would or no and when they intended no such thing And many Examples there are of such a judicial Blindness and Infatuation in every Age of the world There are seldom any great and remarkable Calamities which befall any persons especially Nations but By-standers see how they undo themselves by their own stupid wilfulness and folly As has been long since observed Quos perdere vult Iupiter Prius dementat That God first blinds and infatuates those whom he intends to destroy And this is what the Scripture means by hardening mens hearts and blinding their eyes as I hope appears from what I have now discoursed and no man has any reason to quarrel either with the Justice or Holiness of God upon this account But we have all great reason to take warning by these Examples lest we provoke God so long by our sins by our own wilful blindness and hardness that he inflict this judicial Blindness on us that he shut our eyes not to see the things that belong to our peace whcih we have so many sad symptoms of already among us that it is time to take warning Nothing can be more just than for God to harden those men to their own ruin who harden themselves against his fear So to blind those who will not see nor regard their Duty as to mistake their Interest too And the only way to prevent such a judicial Hardness and Infatuation is to reverence God to have respect to all his Commandments in the first place to take care of our Duty and then to commit our ways unto the Lord in a secure dependance on his Providence There are several other Texts of Scripture alledged to this purpose to charge God with the sins of men but they will receive a shorter Answer As 2dly Those Texts which ascribe what is done by the sins of men to God's doing But the Answer to this is plain for God can and does bring to pass a great many wise and holy Designs by the sins of men without being the Author of their sins and it is only the Event which is attributed to God not the Sin whereby such Events are brought to pass This will appear at the first view by considering some of these Texts Ioseph's Brethren sold him to the Ishmaelites who carried him into Egypt where God advanced him to Pharaoh's Throne Ioseph tells his Brethren That though they sold him it was God that sent him before them into Egypt to preserve their lives So now it was not you that sent me hither but God 45. Gen. 5 7 8. Ioseph does not say That it was from God that his Brethren sold him this was their own Act and all the wickedness of it was their own but it was God who sent him into Egypt which his Brethren never thought of nor intended their only concern being to get rid of him and when God did that which they never intended to do that may well be said to be God's doings who permitted their wickedness and made use of it to accomplish his own wise Counsels as he tells his Brethren As for you ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive 50. Gen. 20. When Iob was plundered by the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans he attributes it to God The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away 1. Job 21. And so must all men say who believe a Providence that all the good or evil that happens to us in this world whoever be the immediate Instruments of it is ordered and disposed by God but Iob does not therefore attribute the wickedness of the Sabaeans and the Chaldaeans to God as if God could not govern and over-rule the wickedness of Men and Devils without being the Author of their wickdness When David had committed that great sin in defiling Vriah 's Wife and contriving his murther God threatens
cover the Mountain had heard the Thunder and the Trumpet and at last a Voice delivering the Law with an unimitable Terror and Majesty what would they then have thought of this Or what farther evidence would they have desired that it was God who spoke to them This could be no Dream nor melancholy Apparition or disturbed Fancy for they had timely notice of it three days before and were commanded to sanctify themselves to meet their God and if a whole Nation had been imposed on after such fair Warning it had been as great a Prodigy and Miracle as the Appearance on Mount Sinai and would have argued some Divine and Supernatural Infatuation and that would have proved a God This then was as visible a Demonstration as could be given of the Presence and Power and Majesty of God who rejected all other gods from any share in his Worship and declares himself to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth for I 'm sure the Wit of man cannot invent a more effectual Conviction than this Let us then consider the Wisdom of Providence in this both with respect to the Israelites and to the rest of Mankind He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And therefore when God intended to restore his own Worship again in the world and to make Israel a Pattern and Example of it to the rest of Mankind it was necessary to give them as visible and ocular a demonstration of the Power and Glory of God as it was possible for Creatures to have When the whole World was over-run with Idolatry and the Israelites themselves so strongly inclined to it nothing less than such an Appearance from Mount Sinai was likely to establish the Faith and Worship of the One Supreme God and we see that this it self could very hardly do it for immediately after they had heard God speak to them while Moses was in the Mount they made them a Golden Calf and worshipped it and as soon as they mingled with any other people they joined in their Idolatrous Worship a sad Example of which we have in their worship of Baal Peor 25. Numb But this was the highest evidence God could then give them of his Power and Glory and it did in time prevail and in them all Mankind who know their Story have a visible demonstration of One Supreme God But not to insist on every Particular which would be endless it may seem strange that when God brought Israel out of Egypt to give them Possession of the Promised Land he should make them wander in the Wilderness forty years till all that generation of men which came out of Egypt were dead excepting Ioshua and Caleb The Apostle to the Hebrews gives us the general Account of this matter 3. Heb. 7. to the end which resolves it into their Idolatry and Infidelity Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their heart and they have not known my ways so I sware in my wrath They shall not enter into my rest Which he makes an admonition to Christians Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God that is in forsaking the True God and declining to Idolatry as the Israelites in the Wilderness did And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief The plain state of the Case is this That Generation of men which came out of Egypt and remembred the Customs and Practices of that People were so strangely addicted to Idolatry that all the Signs and Wonders they saw in Egypt in the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness could not perfectly cure them but whenever they had opportunity they joined themselves to the Heathen gods ate of their Sacrifices and bowed themselves before them that had these men gone into Canaan which was then a Land of Idolaters they would certainly have worshipped their gods instead of destroying them and have mingled themselves with the People of the Land and have learnt their Manners for they who so often tempted God and disobeyed Moses while they were in the Wilderness in expectation of the Promised Land what would they have done had they been once possessed of it So that to have given that Generation of men Possession of Canaan would not have answered God's orginal Design in chusing Israel for his peculiar People for in all likelihood they would have proved a Nation of Idolaters like the other Nations round about them And therefore God deferred the final Accomplishment of his Promise till that Generation was all dead and a new Generation sprung up which knew not Egypt nor had conversed with Idolatrous Nations but had seen the Wonders of God in the Wilderness and had learnt his Statutes and Judgments and were sufficiently warned by the Example of their Fathers whose Carcasses fell in the Wilderness to fear and reverence the Lord Iehovah and to make him their Trust. This is the very Account the Scripture gives of it and thus accordingly it proved for that new Generation of men were never charged with Idolatry but we are expresly told That Israel served the Lord all the days of Ioshua and all the days of the Elders that overlived Ioshua and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel 24. Josh. 31. All this we see was designed by God with admirable Wisdom to make his own Glory and Power known and to publish his Choice of Israel for his peculiar People and to prepare them for himself and to establish his Name and Worship among them And now God had made them fit Inhabitants of the Land of Promise without any longer delay he gives them the actual Possession of it and therefore let us now follow them into the Land of Canaan The History of the Wars of Canaan is sufficiently known which presents us with new Wonders and Miracles not inferior to those which God wrought in Egypt and in the Red Sea for God so visibly fought the Battels of Israel that they and all the world might know that it was he that gave them possession of that good Land and drove out those wicked Inhabitants before them which declared his Glory and made his Power known And what I have already discoursed concerning the Wonders and Miracles in Egypt is equally applicable to this and I need add no more Let us then consider Israel in possession of the Land of Promise And there are but two things more I shall observe in the Iewish History till the coming of our Saviour 1. Their frequent