For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:
Ver. 8. For enquire, I pray thee] Bildad speaks fairly, as Eliphaz had done, whom he all along imitateth.
A bove maiori discit arare minor.
Of the former age] The generations who came before, the Kadmonim, as the Jews called their ancestors, and used this saying concerning them, Cor priscorum fuit sicut porta, &c., the heart of our progenitors was as the gate of the porch of the Temple, ample and beautiful; but the heart of their posterity is as the eye of the needle, narrow and of no receipt in comparison, Rara datur longo prudentia temporis usu (Talmud). Of witnesses Aristotle witnesseth, that the more ancient they are the more creditable, because less corrupt, Pιστοτατοι οι παλαιοι, αδιαφθοροι γαρ (Rheto. lib. i). Nihil mihi antiquius, say the Latins; Nothing is more ancient to me, that is, more highly reputed. And new things are nothing, say the Greeks, τα καινα κενα. Siculus maketh mention of an Egyptian priest, who said to Solon, one of the Greek Sages, You Greeks are very boys (ye are but of yesterday, as it is in the next verse), neither is there an old man (that is, a man versed in ancient histories, or acquainted with antiquities) to be found amongst you all, Seris venit usus ab annis, Gερων δε ελλην ουκ εστι (Diod. Sic.). Much of the ancient divinity was traditional till Moses set pen to paper; the mind of God was either immediately revealed, or handed down and transmitted from father to son, from generation to generation. Hence Bildad here bids Job inquire of the former ages; and thereto refers him for further information; so doth Moses the Israelites, Deuteronomy 4:20; Deuteronomy 32:7. Antiquity, so it be right, is of no small authority; that is a received rule, Quod antiquissimum verissimum, That is truest which is most ancient; as we prefer the newest philosophy, so the ancientest divinity. The Papists boast much of antiquity (as the Gibeonites did of old shoes and mouldy bread); but when they come to prove it, they go no higher than to about a thousand years ago. They scornfully look upon us as novelers, and ask where our religion was before Luther? We answer them, that our religion was always in the Bible, where their religion never was. This is the old commandment, saith St John, which was from the beginning, 1 John 2:7 .
And prepare thyself to the search of their fathers] Or fit thyself, fix thy mind upon it, as Psalms 100:1. We must not think to find truth but upon a serious search, Proverbs 2:3. Anaxagoras complained omnia esse circumfusa tenebris, that all things were full of darkness. Empedocles, that the inlets of the senses were very narrow. Democritus, that truth lay hid as it were in a deep pit that could hardly be fathomed. St Paul cries out, O the depth! How unsearchable are God's judgments, and his ways past finding out! Prepare therefore to this search after God; and pray as that poor man did that cried after Christ; and when he was asked, What wouldst thou have? Lord, said he, that mine eyes might be opened.