The Text is, Number of his years, no search: that is,1 as we well translate it, the number of his years is such as cannot be searched, we say, searched out; it is but one word in the Hebrew, properly signifying, to search a thing to the bottom, that we may find out the utmost of it. The number of Gods years cannot thus be searched out, we cannot find them to the bottom. Elihu speaks of God after the manner of men; years properly belong to man, and the things here below of this world: the life of man, and the continuance of the creature, are measured by hours, and days, and weeks, and months, and years, as these are measured by the motion of the Heavens. But God is far above any such rule or measure of life, or of his being, all these measures are improper unto God; there's no measuring him by hours, days, weeks, months or years, or ages. The word which we translate years, signifieth changes. Years are changed or returned; there is a return of the same time every year, Spring and Summer,2 and Autumn and Winter; thus the year changeth, and turns about continually. God is infinitely above all these charges and turnings of time (Psal. 102.25, 26, 27.) The heavens wax old, and as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years fail not. The years of God are not like the years of the world, which wear it ou•, and change it as a vesture, is changed by time; the Lord is for ever the same. Thus one of the Ancients glosseth those words of the Psalm, Thy years •ay•e not: Thy years (saith he) neither go nor come; thy years stand all together, for because they stand, they that go are not excluded by them that come; thy years are one day, and thy day is not day by day, but to day; thy to day doth not give place to to-morrow, nor doth it succeed to yesterday; thy to day is eternity, therefore thou hast begot thy co-eternal, to whom thou saidest, to day have I begotten thee. So then this expression, Neither can the number of his years be searched out, is, according to our apprehension and understanding, a description not only of very old age, but of eternity. We would think that man very old, the hours,3 yea the minutes of whose life could not be searched out by a good. A•ethme•ici•n ⟨p. 378⟩much more easily may we tell how many years the oldest man hath lived:
The Text is, Number of his years, no search: that is,1 as we well translate it, the number of his years is such as cannot be searched, we say, searched out; it is but one word in the Hebrew, properly signifying, to search a thing to the bottome, that we may find out the utmost of it. The number of Gods years cannot thus be searched out, we cannot find them to the bottome. Elihu speaks of God after the manner of men; years properly belong to man, and the things here below of this world: the life of man, and the continuance of the creature, are measured by houres, and dayes, and weeks, and months, and years, as these are measured by the motion of the Heavens. But God is far above any such rule or measure of life, or of his being, all these measures are improper unto God; there's no measuring him by houres, dayes, weeks, months or years, or ages. The word which we translate years, signifieth changes. Years are changed or returned; there is a returne of the same time every year, Spring and Summer,2 and Autumn and Winter; thus the year changeth, and turnes about continually. God is infinitely above all these charges and turnings of time (Psal. 102.25, 26, 27.) The heavens wax old, and as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years fayle not. The years of God are not like the years of the world, which wear it ou•, and change it as a vesture, is changed by time; the Lord is for ever the same. Thus one of the Ancients glosseth those words of the Psalme, Thy years •ay•e not: Thy years (saith he) neither go nor come; thy years stand all together, for because they stand, they that go are not excluded by them that come; thy years are one day, and thy day is not day by day, but to day; thy to day doth not give place to to-morrow, nor doth it succeed to yesterday; thy to day is eternity, therefore thou hast begot thy co-eternal, to whom thou saidest, to day have I begotten thee. So then this expression, Neither can the number of his years be searched out, is, according to our apprehension and understanding, a description not only of very old age, but of eternity. We would think that man very old, the houres,3 yea the minutes of whose life could not be searched out by a good. A•ethme•ici•n
- 1Numerus annorum ejus, et non est investigatio.
- 2Annus apud Hebraeos ([Greek or Hebrew]) ex sua proprietate et Etyriologia nomen ha•et a mutatione, quasi dicatur mutato• us Ab hae radice vests d•untur [Greek or Hebrew], nam mu•mtur vateras•unt innovantur: •t vutari id•m quod vest•i (1 Reg. 14.2.)Annus apud Hebraeos (〈non-Latin alphabet〉) ex sua proprietate et Etyriologia nomen ha•et a mutatione, quasi dicatur mutato• us Ab hae radice vestes d•untur 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, nam mu•mtur vateras•unt innovantur: •t vutari id•m quod vest•i (1 Reg. 14.2.)
- 3Augustin is in Psal. 102. v. 28.
