The Confusion of Tongues
It has been before noticed, that this story is thrown farther on, on account of finishing the former. The event took place before the division of the earth in the time of Peleg; for every family is there repeatedly said to be divided “after their tongues;”* which implies that at that time they spake various languages, and that this was one of the rules by which they were distinguished as nations.
Prior to the flood, and down to this period, “the whole earth Mas of one language.” We are not told what this was. “Whether it was the same which continued in the family of Eber, or
* Chap. .^. 5, 20, 31.
Gen.lT,] CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 155
whether from this time it was lost, is a matter of small account to us. But it seemed good in the sight of God from hence to divide mankind into different nations, and to this end to give them each a different tongue. The occasion of this great event will appear from the following story.
The posterity of Noah, beginning to encrease, found it necessary to extend their habitations. A company of them, journeying from the east, pitched upon a certain plain in the land of Shinar, by the river Euphrates. Judging it to be an eligible spot, they consulted, and determined here to build a city. There was no stone it seems near at hand; but there was a kind of earth very suitable for bricks, and a bituminous substance which is said to ooze from certain springs in that plain, like tar or pitch, and this they used for cement. Of these materials were afterwards built the famous walls of Babylon.
Having found a good material, they propose to build “a city and a tower” of great eminence, by which they should obtain “a name,” and avoid the evil of which they thought themselves in danger, of being scattered upon the face of the whole earth. But here they were interrupted by a divine interposition: the Lord came down
154 CONFUSION OF TONGUES. [Dis. IJ.
and confounded their language, so that they could not understand one another’s speech.
To perceive the reason of this extraordinary proceeding, it is necessary to enquire into the object or design of the builders. If this can be ascertained, the whole passage may be easily understood. It could not be, as some have supposed, to provide against a future flood; for this would have needed no divine interposition to prevent its having effect. God knew his own intention never to drown the world any more: and if it had been otherwise, or they from a disbelief of his promise had been disposed to provide against it, they would not have been so foolish as to build for this purpose a tower upon a plain, which when raised to the greatest possible height, would be far below the tops of the mountains. It could not have been said of such a scheme. This they have begun to do: and now nothing xvill be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do: for it would have defeated itself.
Neither does it appear to have been designed, as others have supposed, for an idols temple. There is nothing in the story, however, which leads to such a conclusion. It was not for the name of a god, but for their own name, that
Gen, ll.] CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 135
they proposed to build; and that not the tcncer only, but a city and a tower. Nor was the confounding of their language any way adapted, that I can perceive, to defeat such a design as this. Idolatry prevailed in the world, for ought appears, as much under a variety of languages as it would under one.
Some have imagined that it was intended merely as a monument of architectural ambition, like the pyramids of Egypt. This supposition might in a measure agree with the idea of doing it for a name: but it is far from harmonizing with other parts of the story. It contains no such deep-laid scheme as is intimated in the sixth verse, and given as the reason of the divine interference: nor is it supposable that God should interpose in so extrao-rdinary a manner, by working a miracle which should remain throughout every age of the world, or which at least has remained to this day, merely for the purpose of counteracting a momentary freak of human vanity.
There are four characters by which this design, whatever it was, is described. — (1.) It was founded in ambition; for they said,” Let us make us a name.’’ — (2.) It required union; for which purpose they proposed to build a city, that
136 CONFUSION OF TOXGUEs. [Dis. 17.
they might live together, and concentrate their strength and counsels. This is noticed by the Lord himself: “Behold, the people (saith he) a7’e one, and have all one language:” and his confounding their language was for the express purpose of destroying this oneness, by scattering them abroad upon the face of the earth. — (3.) It required that they should be furnished with the means of defence; for which they proposed to add a tower to the city, to which the citizens might repair in times of danger; and of such a height as to bid defiance to any who should attempt to annoy them with arrows, or other missive weapons. — (4.) The scheme was wisely laid; so much so, that if God had not interposed to frustrate it, it would have succeeded: A)id this they have begun to do; and now nothing will be restrained Jroni them, which they have imagined to do.
The only object which appears to accord with all these general characters, and with the whole account taken together, is that of an UNIVERSAL MONARCHY, by wJiich all the families of the earthy in all future ages, Plight be held in subjection. — A very little reflexion will convince US that such a scheme must of necessity be founded in ambition; that it required union, and of course a city, to carry it into execution; that
Gen. 11.] CONFUSIO.V OF TONGUES. 1S7.
a toweVy or citadel, was also necessary to repel those who might be disposed to dispute their claims; and that if these measures were once carried into effect, there was nothing in the nature of things to prevent the accomplishment of their design.
If there were no other reasons in favour of the supposition in question, its agreement with all these circumstances of the history might be thought sufficient to establish it: but to this, other things may be added by way of corroboration.
The time when the confusion of tongues took place, renders it highly probable that the scheme which it was intended to subvert was of Nimrod’s forming, or that he had a principal concern in it. It must have been a little before the division of the earth amongst the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, after their tongues, in their countries, a?id in their nations ;* being that which rendered such division necessary. Now this was about the time of the birth of Peleg, who was named from that event; and this, by reckoning the genealogies mentioned in chap. xi. 10 — 16, will appear to have been about a hundred years after the flood. At this time, Nimrod, who was
* Chap. X. 5, 20, 31.
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the grandson of Ham, must have been alive, and in his prime, And as he was the first person who aspired to dominion over his brethren, and as it is expressly said of him, that the beg’mning of his kingdom was Babel, nothing is more natural than to suppose that he was the leader in this famous enterprize; and that the whole was a scheme of his, by which to make himself master of the world.
It was also natural for an ambitious people, headed by an ambitious leader, to set up for universal monarchy. Such has been the object of almost all the great nations and conquerors of the earth in later periods. Babylon, thougU checked for the present, by this divine interference, yet afterwards resumed the pursuit of her favourite object; and in the time of Nebuchadnezzer, seemed almost to have gained it. The style used by that monarch in his proclamations comported with the spirit of this idea: “To you it is commanded, oh people, nations, and tonsrues!”* Now if such has been the am-* bition of all Nimrod’s successors, in every age, it is nothing surprising that it should have struck the mind of Nimrod himself, and his adherents, They would also have a sort of claim to which their successors could not pretend; namely, that
Dan. iii. 2.
Sen. II.] CONFUSION of tongues. 139
of being the firsts or parent kingdom; and the weight which men are apt to attach to this claim, may be seen by the later pretensions of Papal Rome, (another Babylon) which, under the character of a mother church, headed by a pope, or pretended holy father, has subjected all Christendom to her dominion.
To this may be added, That the means used to counteract these builders, were exactly suited to defeat the atbove design; namely, that of dmding and scattering them, by confounding their language. And it is worthy of notice, that though several empires have extended their territories over people of different languages, yet language has been a very common boundary of nations ever since. There is scarcely a great nation in the world, but what has its own language. The dividing of languages was therefore, in effect, the dividing of nations; and so a bar to the whole Morld being ruled by one government. Thus a jjerpctual miracle was wrought to be an antidote to a perpetual disease.’
But why, it may be asked, should it be the will of God to prevent a universal monarchy; and to divide the inhabitants of the world into a number of independent nations? — This question opens a wide field for investigation. Suffice T 2
140 CONFUSION or TONGUES. [Dts, 17.
it to say at present, such a state of things contains much mercy, both to the world and to the church.
With respect to the world, If the whole earth had continued under one government, that government would of course, considering what human nature is, have been exceedingly despotic and oppressive. We know that in every state of society, where poM’er or wealth, or commerce, is monopolized by an individual, or confined to a few, whose interests may unite them to one another, there is the greatest possible scope for injustice and oppression; and where there is the greatest scope for these evils, human nature ber ing what it is, there they will most abound. Different nations and interests in the world serve as a balance one to the other. They are that to the world which a number of rival merchants, or lesser tradesmen, are to society; serving as a check upon each other’s rapacity. Union, M’hen cemented by good-will to men, is exceedingly desirable: but when self-interest and ambition are at the bottom, it is exceedingly dangerous. Union in such cases is nothing better than a combination against the general good.
It might be thought that if the whole world were under one government, a great number of
Gen.ll.] CONFUSTON^ OF TONGUES. 141
wars might be prevented, which, as things now are, would be certain to take place. And it is true, that one stable government to a certa’mea.’i€nt, is on this account preferable to a great number of lesser ones, which are always at variance. But this principle, if carried beyond certain limits, becomes inimical to human happiness. So far as different people can really become one, and drop all local distinctions and interests, it is well: but if the good of the country governed be lost sight of, and every thing is done to aggrandize the city, or country governing, it is otherwise. And where power is thus exercised, which it certainly would be in case of a universal monarchy, it would produce as many wars as now exist, with only this difference, that instead of their being carried on between independent nations, they would consist of the risings of different parts of the empire against the government in a way of rebellion: and by how much wars of this kind are accompanied with less mutual respect, less quarter given and taken, and consequently more cruelty than the other, by so much would the state of the M’orld have been more miserable than it is at present.
The division of the world into independent liations has also been a great check on per.&ecu-
145 CONFUSION OF TONGUES. [Dis. 17.
iiorif and so has operated in a way of mercy towards the church. — If the whole world had been one despotic government, Israel, the people of God, must in all ages have been in the condition which they were reduced to from the times of the captivity, as a punishment for their sins, a mere province of another power, which might have crushed them, and hindered them, as was the case from the times of Cyrus to those of Darius.* And since the coming of Christ, the only way in which he permits his followers to avoid the malice of the world which rages against them for his sake, is this: “If they persecute you in one city flee to another.” Of this liberty millions have availed themselves, from the earliest to the latest periods of the christian church: but if the whole world had been under one government, and that government inimical to the gospel, there had been no place of refuge left upon earth for the faithful.
The necessary watch also that governments which have been the most disposed co persecute, have been obliged to keep on each other, has filled their hands, so as to leave them but little time to think of religious people. Saul, when pursuing David, was withdrawn from his pur* pose by intelligence being brought him, that the
* Ezra iv. 23, 24.
Gen. 1).] CONFUSION’ of tontoues. 14.3
Philistines had invaded the land: and thus in innumerable instances, the faUings out of bad men have been advantageous to the righteous.
The division of power serves likewise to check the spirit of persecution, not only as finding employment for persecutors to watch their rivals, but as causing them to be watched, and their conduct exposed by them. While the power of papal Rome extended over Christendom, persecution raged abundantly more than it has done since the Reformation, even in popish countries. Since that period, the popish powers, both ecclesiastical and civil, have felt themselves narrowly watched by protestants, and have been almost shamed out of their former cruelties. AVhat has been done of late years has been principally confined to the secret recesses of the Inquisition. It is by communities as it is by individuals: they are restrained from innumerable excesses by the consideration of being under the eye of each other. Thus it is, that liberty of conscience being granted in one or two nations, and becoming honourable, has insensibly made its way into the councils of many others.
From the whole we may infer two things. — (1.) The harmony of divine revelation with all that we know of fact. If any object to the
144 CONFUSION or tongues. [Dis. 17.
probability of the foregoing account, and imagine that the various languages spoken in the world must have been of human contrivance, let them point us to a page in any history, ancient or modern, which gives an account of the first makinq; of a lano’uas-e, dead or livinci;. If all that man can be proved to have done towards the formation of any language be confined to changing, combining, improving, and reducing it to grammatical form, tlicre is the greatest probability, independent of the authority of revelation, that languages themselves were originally the work of God, as was that of the first man and woman. — (i.) The desirableness of the universal spread of Christ’s kingdom. We may see in the reasons which render a universal o-overnment among men incompatible M’ith the liberty and safety of the world, abundant cause to pray for this, and for the union of all his subjects under him. Here there is no danger of tyranny or oppression, nor any need of those low motives of rivalship to induce him to seek the well-being of his subjects. A union with Christ and one another, embraces the best interests of mankind.