§ 1.
But “God,” say they, “hardened the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants.” Plainly they who bring this as a charge do not read in the Gospel,1 where upon the disciples asking our Lord, Why speakest Thou to them in parables,2 the Lord answered, Because unto you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven; but to them I speak in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear,3 understanding may not understand:4 that in respect of them may be fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias which saith, Make the heart of this people fat, and stop their ears, and blind their eyes.5 But blessed are your eyes, which see the things that ye see; and your ears which hear the things which ye hear. For it is one and the same God, who brings indeed blindness on such as believe not, but set Him at nought;—(as the Sun, who is His creature, doth to those who through some infirmity of their eyes cannot look steadily on his light);—but to such as believe and follow Him, He vouchsafes fuller and larger illumination of mind.
According then to this way of speaking, the Apostle also saith in the 2nd to the Corinthians,6 In whom God hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ may not shine.7 And again in that to the Romans: And as they did not think meet to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. But in the 2nd to the Thessalonians he saith expressly,8 speaking of Antichrist, And therefore God shall send them a working of error, that they may believe a lie; that they may all be condemned9 who believed not the truth, but consented unto iniquity.
§ 2.
If therefore even in our time, all those of whom God knoweth that they will not believe (as He knoweth all beforehand) are given over by Him to their own unbelief, and if He turn away His Face from that sort of people, leaving them in the darkness which they have chosen for themselves; what wonder if at that time also, whereas Pharaoh with those around him would never believe,10 He gave them over to their own infidelity? As the Word speaks from the Bush to Moses:11 But I know that Pharaoh King of Egypt will not let you go, except with a strong hand. And in what sense the Lord spake in parables, and caused blindness to Israel, that seeing they might not see, because He knew their unbelief, in the same sense He likewise hardened the heart of Pharaoh,12 so that he, seeing that it is the finger of God which leads out the people, might not believe, but be cast headlong into the sea of infidelity; imagining that their departure takes place by magical efficacy, and that the Red Sea did not by the power of God furnish the people with a way across, but that it is so ordered by Nature.