Thomas Manton was an English Puritan pastor whose sermons are available as a multivolume set. In his sermons, you have something of an epitome of the Puritan method of preaching, but in its structure and in its style. As I was looking at Exodus this morning, I took a look at his sermon on Exodus 4:21, in which God says to Moses, “I will harden his [Pharaoh’s] heart.” In part of his sermon, Manton deals with the question of “How?,” the answer to which I think might be helpful for others. Here’s a summary of what he says (each point is developed more by him if you want to read it). Note that some are quotes while others are my own words.
We must answer “(1.) Negatively; (2.) Affirmatively.” In other words, we must say what God doesn’t do as well as what he does do.
“1. Negatively. In the explication of this matter we must avoid both extremes; some say too much of it, others too little.
[1.] We must not say too much, lest we leave a stain and blemish upon the divine glory.
(1.) God infuseth no hardness and sin as he infuseth grace…
(2.) God doth not excite the inward propension to sin; that is Satan’s work. He persuadeth it not; it hath neither command, nor approbation, nor influence, nor impulse from heaven. In all these ways we must look upon man’s sin…”
[2.] We must not say to little, such as those who say it happens by “bare prescience,” “idle permission,” nor “merely by desertion and suspension of grace.” “It was God’s will that Pharaoh should be hardened.
“2. Affirmatively.”
[1.] “By desertion, by taking away the restraints of grace.” This is followed by three clarifying points.
(1.) He owes no one
(2.) He knows how best to use evil for good
(3.) “There is an actual forfeiture. God is so far from being bound to continue grace, that he is bound in justice to withdraw what is given. When men stop their ears, God may shut them.”
[2.] “By … [handing over]. He delivereth them up to the power of Satan, who worketh upon the corrupt nature of man, and hardeneth it; he stirreth him up as the executioner of God’s curse”
[3.] Finally, there is an “active providence, which disposeth and propoundeth such objects as, meeting with a wicked heart, maketh it more hard.”
Of course, each of these points could be developed further than Manton does, but they give good guidelines for Christians as we wrestle with the question of God’s hardening of sinners. First, we must not say that he does it in the same way he does it to unbelievers. We often call this “asymmetry.” While God pours grace into our hearts, he does not pour sin into our hearts, nor does he move us to sin. While we’re at it, though, we don’t say he’s passive in the situation. Second, positively, we say that he ceases to graciously restrain and instead hands someone over to Satan and brings someone to a situation where they can indulge in the sins their hearts desire.
If you’d like to read him directly, this sermon is in volume 17, which can be purchased in hard copy here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/collected-workssets/volumes-16-17-mantons-works/ , or read online here: http://www.digitalpuritan.net/Digital%20Puritan%20Resources/Manton%2C%20Thomas/The%20Complete%20Works%20of%20Thomas%20Manton%20%28vol.17%29/%5BTM%5D%20Two%20sermons%20on%20Exodus%204.21.pdf
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