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Again, it is faid to be unreasonable for God to harden the heart of Pharaoh, as he is faid to have done, in order to give occafion for the extraordinary displays of miracles of which I have given an account. He is even faid to have raised him up for this very purpose. But this is nothing more than the usual phraseology of scripture, according to which every thing is immediately afcribed to God that takes place in the general plan of Providence, of which he is, in a proper sense, indeed, but only ultimately, the author.

Thus, when David heard Shimei curfe him, he said, Let him curfe, for God has bidden him curfe. Not that Shimei had received any order from God to curfe David, or that David thought fo when he made use of the language; but that it was righteous in God to permit him fo to do. So alfo Jofeph faid that God had sent him into Egypt, when he well knew that he was fent thither by the wicked devices of his brethren. But his going thither was an event of which Providence, as it were, availed itself, for the best of purposes.

The fame was the cafe with respect to Pharaoh. He was naturally, as wẹ say, an obstinate man, and long perfifted in his resolution to detain the Ifraelites in fubjection to him; and the Divine Being made use of this difpofition of his to give fuch a manifeft difplay of his power, as answered the most important purposes in that age, and to the present time. And we have inftances in history, and in common life, of obftinacy equal to that of Pharaoh. That of the Scribes and Pharifees in our Saviour's time was not fhort of it, and equally fubfervient to the defigns of Providence.

That there was nothing fupernatural in the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh, but that his conduct arose from his own natural and blameable obftinacy, and that his case was thus generally understood, appears from what the Philistines fay to one auother when they were confulting about fending back the ark of God, which had been taken; when instead of furnishing them with a permanent cause of triumph, they found themselves grievously incommoded Sam. vi. 6. Wherefore, then, do

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ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians, and Pharaoh, hardened their hearts, when he had wrought wonderfully among them? Did they not let the people go, and they departed.

I would farther obferve with respect to these objections, and also to that from the deftruction of the Canaanites, and other violations of the common rules of moral conduct among men, that what we call evil, natural and moral, is continually employed in the courfe of Divine Providence as the means of producing good, and that there can be no juft objection to this in the conduct of any being, provided all the confequences of things could be foreseen and attended to, as they are by the Supreme Being. The reafon why our choice of means to gain the fame good end is limited by the ufual rules of morality, is the imperfection of our knowledge. On this account, the rule of our conduct is in many cafes different from that of God's. We must not do evil that good may come, because we cannot be sure that good will come of it. But in this forefight, as well as in every thing elfe, God is infallible. He

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fees the end from the beginning, and therefore in his conduct the introduction of partial evil may have the best effect.

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We are not to expect that the author of revelation fhould be any other Being than the author of Nature, or that he should condu& himself by any other rules. And he who often destroys whole cities and countries by means of earthquakes, and other natural causes, might choose to effect the destruction of the Canaanites by the fword of the children of Ifrael. was this obvious reafon for it, that by exprefsly commiffioning them to effect this extirpation, he fignified in the least equivocal manner his displeasure at the conduct of the inhabitants of this country, for their abominable idolatrous practices, as a warning to the Ifraelites, who were to be a people devoted to his fole worship, for the inftruction of all mankind.

Laftly, Though the history of the deliverance of the Ifraelites from their state of bondage in Egypt, and their fettlement in the land of Canaan, be an extraordinary one, abounding with miraculous events,

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which require a proportionally clear evidence, we have feen that the evidence of the facts is as full and clear as the cafe, or as any cafe, can require; and the object of the whole scheme to which thefe events were an introduction, was of proportional importance. It was nothing less than to imprefs upon mankind the belief of the existence and providence of the one true God, the purity of his worship, the knowledge of our moral duty in this life, and of our expectations in another. For this great purpose it pleased God to make one nation the medium of all his communications with mankind, and to diftinguish them by a particular providence, that they might appear in the most confpicuous light to the whole world, and attract univerfal attention. This the nation of the Jews has done to a confiderable degree in all ages. Originally they were fituated in the very centre of all the civilized nations of the world, and as civilization extended, they by one means or another became most wonderfully difperfed through all countries; and at this day they are almoft literally every where,

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