lood should happen; I would rather think it was
only that they intended to build a most glorious and magnificent City,
where they might all inhabit together; and that this Tower was to be
built for Ornament and also for Strength, or as above, and for a
Store-house to lay up vast Magazines of Provisions, in Case of
extraordinary Floods or other Events, the City being built in a great
Plain, namely, the Plains of _Shimar_ near the River _Euphrates_.

But the Story, as it is recorded, suits better with Satan's Measures at
that Time; and as he was from the Beginning prompting them to every
Thing that was contrary to the Happiness of Man, so the more
preposterous it was, and the more inconsistent with common Sense, the
more to his Purpose; and it shew'd the more what a compleat Conquest he
had gain'd over the Reason as well as the Religion of Mankind at that
Time.

Again, 'tis evident in this Case, they were not only acting contrary to
the Nature of Things, but contrary to the Design and to the Command of
Heaven; for God's Command was that they should replenish the Earth, that
is, that they should spread their Habitations over it, and People the
whole Globe; whereas they were pitching in one Place, as if they were
not to multiply sufficient to take up any more.

But what car'd the Devil for that, or to put it a little handsomer, that
was what _Satan_ aimed at; for it was enough to him, to bring Mankind
to act just contrary to what _Heaven_ had directed or commanded them in
any thing, and if possible in every Thing.

But God himself put a stop to this foolish Piece of Work, and it was
time indeed to do so, for a madder thing the Devil himself never
proposed to them; I say, God himself put a stop to this new Undertaking,
and disappointed the Devil; and how was it done? not in Judgment and
Anger, as perhaps the Devil expected and hop'd for, but as pitying the
Simplicity of that dreaming Creature Man, he confused their Speech, or
as some say, divided and confused their Councils, so that they could not
agree with one another, which would be the same Thing as not to
understand one another; or he put a new Shibboleth upon their Tongues,
thereby separating them into Tribes or Families, for by this every
Family found themselves under a Necessity of keeping together, and this
naturally encreased that Differing Jargons of Language, for at first it
might be no more.

What a Confusion this was to them we all know, by their being obl