Possibly Canaan might do it without design at first, but might be brought in to ridicule, and make a jest of, the old patriarch afterward, as is too frequent since in the practice of our days; but I rather believe he did it really with a wicked design, and on purpose to ex pose and insult his reverend old parent; and this seems more like too, because of the great bitterness with which Noah resented it after he came to be in formed of it.
But be that as it will, the Devil certainly made a great conquest here, and, as to outward appearance, no less than that which he gained before over Adam; nor did the Devil’s victory consist barely in his having drawn in the only righteous man of the whole antediluvian world, and so beginning or initiating the new young progeny with a crime; but here was the great oracle silenced at once; the preacher of righteousness, for such no doubt he would have been to the new world, as he was to the old, I say, the preacher was turned out of office, or his mouth stopt, which was worse; nay, it was a stopping of his mouth in the worst kind, far worse than stopping his breath; for had he died, the office had descended to his sons Shem and Japhet; but he was dead to the office of an in structor, though alive as to his being: for of what force could his preachings be, who had thus fallen himself into the most shameful and beastly excess?
Besides, some are of the opinion, though I hope without ground, that Noah was not only overtaken once in his drink, but that, being fallen into that sin, it became habitual, and he continued in it a great while; and that it was this which is the meaning of his being uncovered in his tent, and that his son saw his nakedness; that is, he continually exposed himself for a long time, an hundred years, say they: and that his son Ham. and his grandson Canaan, having drawn him into it, kept him in it. encouraged and prompted it, and all the while. Satan still prompting them, joined their scoffs and contempt of him, with their wicked 10 endeavors to promote the wickedness; and both with as much success as the Devil himself could wish for.
Then, as for his two sons modestly and decently covering their father, they tell us, that represents Shem and Japhet applying themselves in an humble and dutiful manner to their father, to intreat and beseech him to consider his ancient glory, his own pious exhortations to the late drowned world, and to consider the offence which he gave by his evil courses to God, and the scandal to his whole family; arid also that they are brought in effectually prevailing upon him; and that then Noah cursed the wickedness of Ham’s degenerate race, in testimony of his sincere repentance after the fact.
The story is not so very unlikely, as it is certain that it is not to be proved; and therefore we had better take it as we find it, namely, for one single act. But suppose it was so, it is still certain that Noah’s preaching was sadly interrupted, the energy of his words flattened, and the force of his persuasions enervated and abated, by this shameful fall; that he was effectually silenced for an instructor ever after. And this was as much as the Devil had occasion for; and therefore in deed we read little more of him, except that he lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood; nay, we do not so much as read, that he had any more children, but the contrary; nor indeed could Noah have any more children, except by his old and perhaps superannuated wife, whom it was very likely he had had four or five hundred years, unless you will suppose he was allowed to marry some of his own progeny, daughters or grand-daughters, which we do not suppose was allowed, no not to Adam himself.
This was certainly a master-piece of the Devil’s policy, and a fatal instance of his unhappy diligence; namely, that the door of the ark was no sooner open, and the face of the world hardly dry from the universal destruction of mankind, but he was at work among them; and that not only to forma general defection among the race, upon the foot of the original taint of nature, but like a bold Devil he strikes at the very root, and flies at the next general representative of mankind, attacks the head of the family, that in his miscarriage the rise and progress of a reformation of the new world should receive an early check, and should be at once prevented; I say, like a bold devil, he strikes at the root; and alas! poor unhappy Noah! he proved too weajr for him; Satan prevailed in his very first attempt and got the victory over him at once.
Noah thus overcome, and Satan’s conquest carried on to the utmost of his own wishes, the Devil had little more to do in the world for some ages, than to carry on an universal degeneracy among mankind, and to finish it by a like diligent application, in deluding the generality of the race, and them as they came on gradually into life; this he found the less difficult, because of the first defection which spread like a contagion upon the earth immediately after.
The first evidence we have of his success in this mischievous design was in the building that great stupendous staircase, for such it seems it was intended, called Babel, which, if the whole world had not been drunk, or otherwise infatuated, they would never have undertaken; even Satan himself could never have prevailed with them to undertake such a preposterous piece of work, for it had neither end or means, possibility or probability in it.
I must confess I am sometimes apt to vindicate our old ancestors, in my thoughts, from the charge itself, as we generally understand it; namely, that they really designed to build a tower which should reach up to heaven, or that it should secure them in case of another flood; and Father Casaubon is of my opinion. Whether I am of his or no, is a question by itself. His opinion is, that the confusion was nothing but a breach among the undertakers and directors of the work; and that the building was designed chiefly for a storehouse for provisions, in case of a second deluge. As to their notion of its reaching up to heaven, he takes the expression to be allegorical rather than literal, and only to mean that it should be exceeding high. Perhaps they might not be astronomers enough to measure the distance of space between the earth and heaven, as we pretend to do now; but as Noah was then alive, and as we believe all his three sons were so too, they were able to have informed them how absurd it was to suppose either the one or the other; namely, 1, that they could build up to heaven, or, 2, that they could build firm enough to resist, or high enough to overtop the waters, supposing such another flood 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 storehouse 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 Shinar, 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 everything 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 showed the more what a complete conquest he had gained over the reason as well as the religion of mankind at that time.
Again, it is 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 cared 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 anything, and if possible, in everything.
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 hoped for, but as pitying the simplicity of that dreaming creature man, he confused their speech, or as some say, divided and confused their counsels, 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