which plainly implied something more, than barely putting an end to his life. Had he permitted him to die by old oge, or by sickness, or even by what is commonly called accident, we should have had no right to conclude from the manner of his dying, that he was really destroyed. But there were two circumstances attending his death, which may be justly considered as denoting his destruction. He was cut off in the midst of his wickedness. Though he had been visited with plague after plague, yet he persisted in hardening his heart against God; and though he had permitted the Israelites to leave his kingdom, yet he pursued them, with a strong desire and expectation, of making them feel the weight of his vengeance. "The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil: I will draw the sword, my hand shall destroy them." This was the language of Pharaoh's heart. He breathed nothing but malice and revenge; and he was cut off in the full exercise of these malignant passions. This is one circumstance, which indicates, that his death was his destruction. And another is, that he died by the immediate hand of divine justice. As God opened the Red Sea in mercy to Israel, so he shut it again in judgment to Pharaoh, whom he had threatened to destroy. This was cutting him off by a judicial act, and in the same manner, in which he had destroyed other incorrigible enemies. He drowned the inhabitants of the old world, by a flood. He consumed the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, by fire from heaven. Those sinners, we know, were victims of divine wrath, and set forth as examples, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And since Pharaoh died, as they died, we may conclude, that he perished, as they perished. God raised him up not merely for death, but for destruction. And it is not the first, but

the second death, which may be properly called the destruction of a rational and immortal creature. This warrants us to believe, that when God cut off Pharaoh from the earth, he consigned him to the regions of darkness, where he is reserved unto the judgment and condemnation of the great day.

II. I am to show, that God raised up Pharaoh to fit him for destruction. God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. He never does any thing without a previous design. If he did destroy Pharaoh, in the manner, which has been represented, there can be no doubt but that he previously intended to destroy him in such a manner. But the divine declarations supersede the necessity of reasoning upon this head. God made known, from time to time, his purpose of destroying Pharaoh. He told Pharaoh to his face, that he would cut him off from the earth, and that he had raised him up for this purpose. He said to Moses before he went to Pharaoh, "I am sure the king of Egypt will not let you go:" and added, "I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt." This was a plain prediction of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea. And with equal plainness he revealed his purpose of destroying Pharaoh to his friend Abraham. "Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years: And that nation whom they shall serve, I will judge;" that is, destroy. It appears from this last prediction, that God had formed his purpose concerning Pharaoh, ages before he brought him into being; and hence we may naturally conclude, that he formed it from the early ages of eternity. He then formed all his other purposes; and there is no reason to imagine, that he determined the character and condition of the king of Egypt, in a later period.

Now, if we look into the history of God's conduct towards Pharaoh, we shall find, that he used all the proper and necessary means, to form him a vessel of wrath, and fit him for that miserable end, to which he was appointed.

1. He raised him up out of nothing into being. He gave him a rational and immortal existence. He endued him with all the intellectual faculties, which were necessary to constitute him a free, moral agent. Pharaoh appears to have possessed a strong and capacious mind. He was certainly capable of enlarged views, He had an extensive reach in his politics. His designs. and measures, with respect to the children of Israel, were deep and well adapted, to answer the purposes of his own personal power and interest. This shows that the Father of spirits gave him superior abilities and placed him high in mental eminence.

2. God raised him up to the throne of Egypt. He girded him, and carried him in the arms of his providence, through infancy, childhood, and youth, up to riper years. He gave him opportunities for cultivating his natural powers, and for qualifying himself for the highest station in life. At length, he placed the crown upon his head, and put the reins of government into his hands. He now stood at the head of a nation which held the first rank among the nations of the earth, in respect to power, wealth, learning, and all the refinements of polished life. In this splendid situation, he was surrounded with every thing, that could please his taste, flatter his vanity, and enflame his ambition. He knew no man in the world, who was able to control either his power, or his pursuits. To such a giddy height God was pleased to raise him in the course of his providence. And this was a natural and necessary step, to prepare him for his final fate.

For it is a divine maxim, that "pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

3. God not only raised Pharaoh to the pinnacle of human glory, but also removed from him outward restraints. Barely giving him the power of an unlimited monarch, was virtually setting him above all legal influence and control. But besides this, God removed Moses from his presence and kingdom, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, and thoroughly acquainted with all the arts and intrigues of a court. Had this wise and pious man been permitted to stand near the throne, or even to live in the kingdom, his example and influence might have been a silent and powerful check upon the ambition and cruelty of a lawless tyrant. But it seems God sent him into Midian, on purpose to give Pharaoh ample opportunity of indulging his inhuman and malignant disposition in oppressing and abusing his innocent subjects. Accordingly we find, that it was in the absence of Moses, that he devised and passed those cruel edicts, which were designed to break the spirits and destroy the lives of the unoffending Israelites. God meant, by taking off outward restraints, to give him a fair opportunity of filling up the measure of his sins, and of ripening himself for deserved and predestinated ruin.

4. God endured this vessel of wrath, with much long-suffering and forbearance. Instead of treating him according to his deserts, he waited long to be gracious. He used a variety of means to bring him to repentance. He sent him one solemn message after another, by the mouth of Moses and of Aaron. to impress those messages the more deeply on his mind, he followed them with one awful judgment after another, until he had spread desolation, terror, and mourning through the land. These dreadful scenes

And

were too heavy for Pharaoh to bear, and constrained him time after time to stoop, and beg for relief. His cries were heard, and respite was granted. But mercies, as well as judgments, conspired to increase his stupidity and hardness of heart, which prepared him for a more unexpected and more aggravated doom.

But how came Pharaoh to wax worse and worse under both the smiles and frowns of heaven? Mercies and afflictions have a moral tendency to soften and meliorate the hearts of good men. Saints have often derived great benefit from the manurings and cultivations of divine providence. And even obdurate sinners, such as Manasseh, have been brought to humility and repentance, under divine corrections. How, then, did it come to pass, that Pharaoh grew more and more stupid and incorrigible, under all the frowns as well as patience and long-suffering of God? This pertinent question leads to another important observation.

5. That God hardened his heart. We read, "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord." And we read again, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; he turneth it whithersoever he will." Pharaoh, as a man and as a king, was just as much dependent on God, as other men and other kings. His heart, therefore, was in the hand of the Lord, who had a right as well as power, to turn it whithersoever he pleased. And he was pleased to turn it against all good. God told Moses before he sent him to Pharaoh, that he would harden his heart; and he repeatedly told Moses after he had sent him to Pharaoh, that he had hardened his heart. God intended to hinder Pharaoh from granting the request of the children of Israel, until he had prepared him for his