“That which follows (verse 17) comes something nearer the cause. _The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, for this same purpose I have raised thee up_, (that is, I have made thee a king, or I have preserved thee), _that I might show my power in thee_. But this particle, _that_, doth not always signify the main end of an action, but sometimes only a consequent of it, as Matth. ii. 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 show 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 undergoing his judgments. Hitherto we find no eternal punishments, nor no temporal punishment without just deserts. “It follows, (ver. 18), _whom he will he hardeneth_. Indeed hardness of heart is the greatest judgment that God lays upon a sinner in this life, worse than all the plagues of Egypt. But how doth God harden the heart? Not by a natural influence of any evil act or habit into the will, nor by inducing the will with persuasive motives to obstinacy and rebellion (James i. 13, 14): _For God tempteth no man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed_. Then God is said to harden the heart three ways; first, negatively, and not positively; not by imparting wickedness, but by not imparting grace; as the sun descending to the tropic of Capricorn, is said with us to be the cause of winter, that is, not by imparting cold, but by not imparting heat. 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.