or altered the thing that had gone out of his lips"." The comparison between the two covenants in this particular is not forced or fanciful; it is suggested by God himself; who assures us that the covenant of his grace and peace shall be more immovable than rocks or mountains, yea, as unalterable as the covenant which he made with Noah3.]

We will close the subject with two suitable REFLEC

TIONS:

1. What reason have we to admire the forbearance of God!

[The continuance of the world, considering the state of its inhabitants, is a most astonishing proof of God's mercy and forbearance. Let us only look around, and see whether mankind be not almost universally living as they did before the flood: "they were then eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage," and regardless of the warnings of God's righteous Monitor. And this is precisely our state: yet God has spared us, instead of inflicting on us the judgments we have deserved. He has even sent us "fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." What reason then have we to bless and magnify his name! But let us rather turn our eyes inward, and see what reason God has had to make us monuments of his vengeance. Let us contemplate how many of our fellow-creatures are at this moment suffering the just desert of their deeds, while we continue upon mercy's ground, and have all the offers of salvation still sounding in our ears. Let us 66 account this long-suffering of God to be salvation : "seek him while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near."]

let us

of

2. What encouragement have we to seek his grace!

[Without ever once adverting to it in our minds, we are at this moment enjoying the benefits of the covenant made with Noah: and, notwithstanding all our unworthiness, we are yet daily invited to embrace that better covenant, the covenant grace. What shall we do then? Shall we continue regardless of God's mercies, till our day of grace is irrevocably past? O let us "not despise the riches of his patience and longsuffering and forbearance; but let his goodness lead us to repentance." Let us "not receive such stupendous grace in vain." Let us intreat him to "look upon the face of his anointed," as he looks continually upon the rainbow; and for the sake of Jesus to pity and pardon us. Then shall we find favour in his sight, and be delivered from the desolations, which must at last come upon the unbelieving world.]

XVIII.

CONFUSION OF TONGUES.

Gen. xi. 4-8. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

THERE are many things observable in the world, of which neither reason nor history enables us to give any account. One would naturally suppose that Noah and his family speaking the same language, their children should speak the same; and that the same would be transmitted to their latest posterity. Small alterations might be expected to arise; but they would only be different dialects of the same language. But instead of this, there are hundreds of different languages in the world. Even in this island there are no less than three. Learned men have indeed endeavoured to trace various languages to one; but though by their efforts they have displayed their own ingenuity, they have never been able to establish their hypothesis. The true origin of this diversity of languages is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. In the passage before us we are informed respecting the time and manner and occasion of their first introduction. The descendants of Noah were building a city and tower in order to prevent that dispersion of their families, which God had ordained for the replenishing of the earth: and God, in righteous displeasure, confounded their languages, so that they could not understand each other: by this means they were necessitated to relinquish their project, and to fulfil the designs of his overruling Providence.

In our observations on the history of these builders we shall notice,

I. Their intentions

It does not appear that they designed to fortify themselves against another deluge; for then they would have built on a mountain rather than a plain.— They had principally two things in view:

1. The advancement of their own honour

[They said, "Go to, let us make ourselves a name." They thought that by raising this city they should immortalize themselves, and be famed for their wisdom and energy to the remotest generations. And here we see the principle which actuates all the world. What is it but the desire of fame which impels the warrior to the field of battle? What has greater influence on the philosopher, or more forcibly animates him in his researches after knowledge? What is it that actuates the rich in constructing and decorating their spacious edifices, but a desire to display their taste and opulence? Even the charitable are too often under the influence of this motive. To this, in many instances, must be ascribed the founding of colleges, or endowing of hospitals, or contributing to the support of established institutions. If, in any public charity, the publishing of the names of its supporters were to be discontinued, a difference would soon be found in the amount of the contributions. Would to God we could exempt the professors of religion also from this imputation! Where the heart is really right with God, it is on its guard against this base principle; but there are too many hypocrites, whose chief aim is to be accounted religious, and to be admired either for their talents or their virtues. There will at times be a mixture of principle in the best of men, which it is the labour of their lives to detect and rectify: and there is in all who are truly conscientious a commendable desire to approve themselves to their fellow-creatures in the discharge of their several duties. It is not in reference to either of these that we now speak. It is rather in reference to those in whom the love of fame has a predominant ascendancy of them we say, as of the builders of Babel, that they are the objects of God's just and heavy displeasure a.]

2. The gratification of their own wishes

[God had ordered that the survivors of the deluge should "increase and multiply, and replenish the earth." Of course,

a See this exemplified in Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iv. 30, 31.) Herod (Acts xii. 22, 23.) and even the pious Hezekiah (2 Kings xx. 13-18.) b Gen. ix. 1.

if the whole earth was to be re-peopled, the rising generations must gradually enlarge their borders, with a view to occupy every quarter of the globe. But the builders of Babel thought that such a dispersion would deprive them of many comforts, and be attended with many inconveniences. As for the divine will, they were not much concerned about it: all they thought of was, their own ease and pleasure: and if obedience to God stood in competition with the gratification of their own wishes, they did not hesitate to sacrifice duty to inclination.

In this respect their example is very generally followed. God has prescribed a line of conduct to us which is difficult and self-denying. He requires us to sit loose to the vanities of this world, and to seek our rest and happiness above. This but ill suits our earthly and sensual dispositions. Hence we choose not to submit to such restraints: we think we are at liberty to please ourselves: we pronounce the commands of God to be unnecessarily strict and severe : we content ourselves with such a conformity to them as will consist with the indulgence of our own desires: and we prosecute our plans without any reference to His will, or any subjection to His control.

Look at the young, the gay, the worldly, the ambitious; and say whether they be not all treading in the steps of these infatuated builders? Say whether they do not systematically shun a life of self-denial, and follow their own inclinations rather than the commands of God?

How offensive such a life is to God we may collect from those declarations of the apostle, That "to be carnally-minded is death," and that "they who are in the flesh cannot please Gode."]

Since their purpose was directly opposite to God's decree, we shall not wonder at,

II. Their disappointment

God in this place, as also in several other places, speaks in the plural number; "Let US go down." By this form of expression he gave, it should seem, an early intimation of the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity, which was afterwards to be more clearly revealed. Moreover, speaking after the manner of men, he represents himself as coming down from heaven to inspect their work, and as feeling an apprehension, that, if he did not interrupt its progress, his own plans respecting the dispersion of mankind would be defeated. He then declares his determination to d Gen. i. 26. and iii. 22.

c Rom. viii. 6, 8.

frustrate their design, and to accomplish his own purposes, by confounding their language.

Now in this their disappointment it will be profitable to notice,

1. The time

[God interrupted them in the midst of all their hopes and projects. They had made considerable progress in their work, and were, doubtless, anticipating the satisfaction they would feel in its completion. And thus it is that the expectations of those who are seeking their happiness in this world are generally disappointed. They form their plans; they prosecute their designs; they advance in their prospects; partial success animates them to a more diligent pursuit of their favourite object: but sooner or later God stops them in their career, and says to them, "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee." "When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as a thief in the night, or as travail upon a woman with child.”]

2. The manner

[The means which God used to stop the progress of the work was the most unlooked for that can be imagined. The people engaged in it might conceive it possible that they should be stopped by quarrels amongst themselves, or by another deluge, or by fire from heaven; but they could never entertain the remotest idea of such an interruption as they experienced. And thus does God generally interpose to disappoint the expectations of worldly men. He has ten thousand ways in which to render their plans abortive, or to embitter to them the very things in which they have sought their happiness. We have laboured for honour and distinction: he suffers us perhaps to attain our wishes; and then makes our elevation a source of nothing but disquietude and pain. Many have looked for enjoyment in the acquisition of a partner or a family; who after a time would give the world perhaps to loose the indissoluble knot, or to have been "written childless in the earth." In short, the Governor of the Universe is never at a loss for means to confound the devices of the wise, or frustrate the counsels of the ungodly.

Moreover, as the disappointment of the builders was strange and unlooked for, so was it in a way that perpetuated their disgrace. The building which they had raised would, for many centuries perhaps, be a witness against them: every time also that they opened their lips, they would be reminded of their folly and wickedness by the very language which they spoke: and as long as the world shall stand, the different nations of