tliis discourse, is strongly insisted on by the Apostle Paul ; and the words of my text are adduced by him in confirmation of his statement. He is shewing that God, in the exercise of his mercy to the Jewish nation, had acted altogether in a way of o-race, according to his own sovereign will and pleasure : that he had entailed his blessings on Isaac and his seed, instead of imparting them to Ishmael and his posterity ; and, in like manner, had again limited them to Jacob, the younger son of Isaac, and withheld them from Esau, the elder son. This had God done " in order that his purpose according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that called." Then, knowing that the proud heart of man would rise against this doctrine, and accuse it as " imputing unrighteousness to God," he further confirms his statement by express declarations of God to Moses : " He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy ; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion :" and from thence he draws this con- clusion ; "So, then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." To this decla- ration he adds another of a similar tendency, addressed to Pharaoh, even the very words of my text : " For this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth :" from which words he draws again this remarkable con- clusion ; " Therefore hath God mercy on whom he will have mercy ; and whom he will, he hardenethV
Now here the doctrine of election is stated in the strongest and most unequivocal terms. But let not any one imagine that the doctrine of reprobation is therefore true. God has not said in my text, " I have brought thee into the world on pur- pose to damn thee, and to get glory to myself in thine ever- lasting destruction :" no, there is no such assertion as that in all the Holy Scriptures. There is, in the Epistle of St. Peter, an expression which in sound has that aspect ; but, when pro- perly explained, it has no such meaning. It is said by him, " These stumble at the word, being disobedient ; whereunto also they were appointed1." But to what were they appointed? — to disobedience ? No : but to make that word, which they would not obey, an occasion of falling. God has ordained, that " they who will do his will, shall know of the doctrine, whe- ther it be of Godm :" but that those who will not do his will, shall stumble at his word, and find the Lord Jesus Christ, as revealed in it, "a rock of offence, yea, a gin also and a snare"." This will throw the true light upon our text : God did not
* Rom. ix. 7—18. » 1 Pet. ii. 8. m John vii. 17.
n Isai. viii. 14, 15, compared with the fore-cited passage from St. Peter.
71.1 pharaoh's elevation to the throne. 357
bring Pharaoh into the world on purpose to destroy him : but, foreseeing the inveterate pride and obstinacy of his heart, he raised him to the throne, where he would have an opportunity of displaying with effect those malignant dispositions, and would thereby give occasion for God to glorify himself, in an extraordinary display of his justice and his power, in the punishment of sin.
Here, then, we see the electing grace of God. God chose Moses, who had been in rank and authority the second person in the kingdom of Egypt, to be the deliverer of his people. Moses, when called to the work, declined it again and again ; and might well have been left to reap the bitter fruit of his folly. But God, by his Spirit, overcame his reluctance, and upheld him in the performance of his duty. To Pharaoh he gave not this grace ; but left him to the power of his own lusts. In making this distinction, God did no injury to Pharaoh. Neither Pharaoh nor Moses had any claim upon God. If, when Moses declined the honour which was offered him, God had transferred that honour to Pharaoh, and given up Moses to the evil of his own heart, he would have done no injury to Moses : Moses would have brought the punishment upon him- self, by his own wickedness : and God had a right to bestow his grace on whomsoever he pleased : and consequently, in leaving Pharaoh to harden his own heart and to perish in his sins, whilst he shewed mercy to Moses, and made him an honoured instrument of good to the Jewish nation, God did no injury to Pharaoh or to any one else: in the exercise of mercy, he acted as an Almighty Sovereign; and in the exercise of judgment, he acted as a righteous Judge, in perfect consistency with justice and with equity. We see at all events the fact, that " God did, after much long-suffering, make known on one his wrath, as on a vessel of wrath that had fitted itself for destruction;" and that toward another " he made known the riches of his glory, as on a vessel of mercy which he himself had prepared unto glory0." The exercise of his mercy was gra- tuitous and without desert ; but the exercise of his displeasure was merited and judicial.