them for it; as in the cases of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, the sons of Jacob, Judas, and others. The first of these especially, as recorded by the divine historian, commonly presents itself to men's minds loaded with difficulties, and has of old been made the ground of objections against the truth of Revelation': as if the Almighty purposely rendered him obstinate, and prevented him from being persuaded and converted by any of the miracles wrought before him, for the express purpose of a plea for punishing him the more severely: a supposition into which some divines have too readily fallen. It would be esteemed a most incomprehensible anomaly in any human governor to contrive means to make his subjects act contrary to the laws, in order to vindicate the authority of those laws, and manifest his own power; and then giving that as a reason for inflicting the heavier punishment. The accusation of the priests, by Malachi, (ii. 8.) is inconsistent with any such notion of the divine government. By the mouth of that prophet, God charges it upon them as an aggravation of their own sin, that they were the cause why many sinned against the law by their example and misrule. It is a long stride beyond

1

1 It is much canvassed by Origen, Philocalia, c. xxvii. p. 101. See also Shuckford's Connection, Vol. ii. b. 9. p. 485-489; and Edwards on the Freedom of the Will, Part iv. sect. 9. especially the note on Luke xxii. 21, 22, from Doddridge. Hey's Lectures, Vol. iii. p. 253.

this to suspect the Divine Governor, not only as incidentally causing, but by his measures actually contriving to produce those dispositions and that effect of them, which he unreservedly, in almost every page, condemns. Whatever difficulty the expressions of the historian may present, he cannot mean to teach any such doctrine: the solution of them must be sought in the right apprehension of the tropological language of Scripture, which is used to represent the Divine Purposes, in the stile usual with those for whom he wrote, and accordingly intelligible to them*. Whether the expressions be clear or not to us, the position, well laid down by one of our old divines," let God be free to do good, and man to do evil," is the key by which they must all, in some way or other, be unlocked.

The ways of the Almighty are not as our ways, nor is the Governor of all bound by our rules of justice: but when he has revealed himself as the Judge of men, and declared justice and mercy to be the law of his proceedings, he fixes our expectations of the treatment which we are to receive, and gives his sanction to all those notions of right and wrong, which we are taught in his word, which our minds cherish, and by which we cannot avoid framing our apprehensions, when we meditate on his doings. Abraham, in his pleadings before God for the in

* See Note 3.

habitants of Sodom, appeals to such notions, unreproved. God himself challenges the Jews to prove his ways unequal. Our Saviour applies parables, taken from the proceedings of men, to illustrate the divine treatment of us; justifies the punishment of the unforgiving by directing our indignation against the unmerciful servant; and from the affection which we feel as fathers, teaches us to expect the like tenderness from our heavenly Father. From these instances nothing can be inferred, if there be no point of contact in the subjects of them; which there is not, if the justice, mercy, goodness, and truth of the Supreme Being be so different in their nature from the same moral qualities in men, that we cannot judge of them by any likeness in their effects to those, which are produced by the virtuous dispositions in ourselves, which we so name. We may therefore with modesty and diffidence appeal to the moral notions entertained in our own minds, for the explanation of Scripture and for vindicating it when charged with ascribing to the Deity proceedings, inconsistent with justice, mercy, or truth. We must, however, remember, that upon all subjects connected with the Divine Government, as well as every other thing relating to his attributes, our notions are far from being adequate, or our minds comprehensive enough to draw any conclusions, but such as are immedi

2 Ezek. xviii. 25.

ately connected with our own situation and relations. As long as we keep to what is practical, we may avoid material error. Particularly in explaining any passage of Scripture, we must keep close to the immediate subject, and not wander out of the circumstances connected with it. We ought to bear in mind, that the view which we take of most subjects is only of part at a time, and of course the language in which we speak of them must bear the same partial character; and when our thoughts are fixed strongly on one truth, they are apt to appear regardless of another: so that a proposition which is true, viewed in one light, when viewed in another, may appear contrary to another proposition which is equally true, but requiring also its proper limitations; and as Scripture speaks in the language of men, and addresses itself to minds of this frame, its expressions must partake of the same partial character.

Such is the case in the history of Pharaoh now before us. The object of the divine historian was, to impress strongly upon the minds of the Israelites a confidence in the power of God and in his absolute direction in every step of their deliverance. To this end it was of no importance to distinguish accurately the intentions or secret counsels of the inferior agents, who, they were assured, should be overruled in all their contrivances. God was the great actor, and every will bowed to his. It was an awful

act of sovereignty for the accomplishment of a great purpose of providence, in the deliverance of his chosen people and the destruction of those who opposed it, exhibited in Egypt, the country to which all nations resorted for instruction in knowledge, human and divine; proving the superiority of his power over all those objects of adoration, which they had set up in his place. In accomplishing this purpose, such an example was to be given of protection on one side and punishment on the other, by an overwhelming succession of miracles, that the obstinate Egyptians might never again presume to molest the Israelites after their retreat; and that after ages, as well as the generation just delivered, might never forget the example afforded them, to prove that the Lord will protect those who trust in him, but set his face against those who do evil. There was no danger lest the Jews should draw a wrong inference from these expressions, in degradation of the holiness and justice of their great deliverer, by whose favour they lived; and who punished their enemies, whose injustice and cruelty they had too long experienced. The whole proceedings will be plain enough, if we examine each difficult expression in order. When God first gives his commission to Moses to demand of Pharaoh the dismission of the children of Israel; he says,

3 See Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt.