That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Ver. 15. That which hath been is now, &c., ] viz., With God, to whom all things are present. Romans 4:17 2Pe 3:8 Jer 1:5-7 Hence God is said to know future things, Exodus 3:9 Joh 18:4 not to foreknow them. For indeed neither foreknowledge nor remembrance are properly in God, since his whole essence is wholly an eye or a mind; it is the example or pattern of all things, so that he needs but to look upon himself, and then he seeth all things, as in a glass. The eye of man beholds many things at once, as ants in a mole hill; but if it will see other things at the same time, it must remove the sight. The mind of man can take in a larger circuit, even a city, a country, a world; but this it doth only in the lump or whole mass of it, for else it must remove from form to form, and from thought to thought. But God takes all at once most steadfastly and perfectly. All things without him are but as a point or ball, which with as much ease he discerneth as we turn our eyes.
And God requireth that which is past.] Or, Inquireth, asketh, that which is bygone; he bespeaks it as present, "calling those things that are not as if they were." Non aliter scivit Deus creata quam creancla, saith Augustine. God knew things to be created, as if they had been before created.