The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall
be
The thing that has been seen and heard is no other than what
shall be seen and heard again; so that what is now seen and heard
is only what has been seen and heard before; it is but the same
thing over again; and that is the reason why the eye and ear are
never satisfied; the same objects, as the visible heavens and
earth, and all therein, which have been from the beginning, these
are they which shall be, and there is nothing else to be seen and
heard, and enjoyed; and that which is done, [is] that which
shall be done;
what is done in the present age, nay, in this year, month, or
day, shall be done over again in the next; and [there is]
no new [thing] under the sun;
which is to be understood of things natural, as the works of
creation, which were finished from the beginning of the world,
and continue as they were ever since, ( Hebrews 4:3 ) (
2 Peter 3:4 )
; the various seasons of day and night, of summer and winter, of
spring and autumn, of heat and cold, of seed time and harvest,
come in course, as they always did; these ordinances never fail,
( Genesis
8:22 ) ( Jeremiah
31:35 Jeremiah
31:36 ) ( Jeremiah
33:20 Jeremiah
33:21 ) . The things before mentioned, the constant
succession of men on earth, who are born into the world and die
out of it, just as they always did; the sun rises and sets at its
appointed time, as it did almost six thousand years ago; the
winds whirl about all the points of the compass now as formerly;
the rivers have the same course and recourse, and the sea its
ebbing and flowing, they ever had; the same arts and sciences,
trades and manufactures, obtained formerly as now, though in some
circumstances there may be an improvement, and in others they
grow worse; see ( Genesis 4:2 Genesis
4:20-22 ) ( Exodus
31:3-5 ) ; and even such things as are thought of new
invention, it may be only owing to the ignorance of former times,
history failing to give us an account of them; thus the art of
printing, the making of gunpowder, and the use of guns and bombs,
and of the lodestone and mariner's compass, were thought to be of
no long standing; and yet, according to the Chinese histories,
that people were in possession of these things hundreds of years
before; the circulation of the blood, supposed to be first found
out by a countryman of ours in the last century, was known by
Solomon, and is thought to be designed by him in ( Ecclesiastes
12:6 ) ; and the like may be observed of other things. The
emperor Mark Antonine F6 has the very phrase (ouden kainon) , "nothing new": so
Seneca F7,
``nothing new I see, nothing new I do.''This will likewise hold good in moral things; the same vices and virtues are now as ever, and ever were as they are; men in every age were born in sin, and were transgressors from the womb; from their infancy corrupt, and in all the stages of life; there were the same luxury and intemperance, and unnatural lusts, rapine and violence, in the days of Noah and Lot, as now; in Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the old world, as in the present age; and there were some few then, as now, that were men of sobriety, honesty, truth, and righteousness. There is nothing to be excepted but preternatural things, miraculous events, which may be called new, unheard of, and wonderful ones; such as the earth's opening and swallowing men alive at once; the standing still of the sun and moon for a considerable time; the miracles wrought by the prophets of the Old and the apostles of the New Testament, and especially by Christ; and particularly the incarnation of Christ, or his birth of a virgin, that new thing made in the earth; these and such like things are made by the power of, he divine Being, who dwells above the sun, and is not bound by the laws of nature. Spiritual things may also be excepted, which are the effects of divine favour, or the produce of efficacious grace; and yet these things, though in some sense new, are also old; or there have been the same things for substance in former ages, and from the beginning, as now; such as the new covenant of grace; the new and living way to God; new creatures in Christ; a new name; the New Testament, and the doctrines of it; new ordinances, and the new commandment of love; and yet these, in some sense, are all old things, and indeed are the same in substance: there is nothing new but what is above the sun, and to be enjoyed in the realms of bliss to all eternity; and there are some things new F8, new wine in Christ's Father's kingdom, new glories, joys, and pleasures, that will never end.
F6 De Orig. Error. l. 2. c. 6.
F7 (Myegy) "laboriosae", Pagninus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Schmidt.
F8 Vid. R. Alshech in loc.
