frustrate their design, and to accomplish his own purposes, by confounding their language.
Now in this their disappointment it will be profit- able 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 woidd feel in its completion. And thus it is that the expectations of those who are seeking their happiness in this world are gene- rally 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 re- quired 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 indis- soluble 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