10. Consider the other recorded instances in
which this name was given by favour or assumed. To Moses it was
said, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh Exod. vii. 1.. Does not this addition, to
Pharaoh, account for the title? Did God impart to Moses the
Divine nature? Did He not rather make Moses a god in the sight of
Pharaoh, who was to be smitten with terror when Moses’ serpent
swallowed the magic serpents and returned into a rod, when he drove
back the venomous flies which he had called forth, when he stayed the
hail by the same power wherewith he had summoned it, and made the
locusts depart by the same might which had brought them; when in the
wonders that he wrought the magicians saw the finger of God? That
was the sense in which Moses was appointed to be god to Pharaoh; he was
feared and entreated, he chastised and healed. It is one thing to
be appointed a god; it is another thing to be God. He was made a
god to Pharaoh; he had not that nature and that name wherein God
consists. I call to mind another instance of the name being given as a title; that
where it is written, I have said, Ye are gods Psalm lxxxi.
(lxxxii.) 6.. But this is obviously the
granting of a favour. I have said proves that it is no
definition, but only a description by One Who chooses to speak
thus. A definition gives us knowledge of the object defined; a
description depends on the arbitrary will of the speaker. When a
speaker is manifestly conferring a title, that title has its origin
only in the speaker’s words, not in the thing itself. The
title is not the name which expresses its nature and kind.