“…(1. . This is, of course, most clearly enacted in that moving soliloquy that opens These lines describing the process of spiritual petrification allude to the sequence in Exodus (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) where it is repeatedly stated that it was God who hardened Pharaoh's heart against the Israelites. This text was of crucial importance to Reformation theology, since it had been interpreted by Saint Paul to mean that God has "mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth" (Rom.…”