Chap. 33. An &pofitian upon the Book, of J o u. Vert. rq.. °harts. As the whole propheticall, fo the whole hifloficall and doecri a-1 wordof God is moti fore, being once fpoken it is fpo- ken for ever, And written as with a pen ofiron, and the point ofa `Diamond, and that upon a rocke which cannot be removed. That which was vaine-glorioully, andbeyond the line of man, fayd of the Law of the Medes and Perrfmans, ( Dan: 6. 8?) is only true of the word of God, it altereth not. Secondly , This once fpeaking, notes the fpeakingof a thing Semet !crime fof :, f cicntly orfully, that there is enough fayd at once, and fo no der,,etfecurate more needs be fayd., Thevulgar tranflation takes up this fence, tpfum non Y a P reetet. Vulg: God bath fpokenonce(that is,hebath fpokenfully or fufliciently for &uia quadfuf- mans infirutton and admonition at once , and therefore he tranf cienterfo ure flates the latter part of the verfe, thus ; And be doth not repente °lu it the fecund time. That which is done at once fufficiently , needs A: notbe done a fecund time ; This is a truth ; There is a fufficien- cy and a fullneffe in the word of Godonce fpoken, there needs nothing to be added ; or as others expound this tranflation. When once God fpeakes,that is,refolves and determines athing, he doth not (asman who often repents of what he bathpurpo- fed ) bring it into a fecondconfideration, for he cannot erre, and therefore he needs decree but once ut though this be a truth, yet I doe not conceive it tobe the meaning of thisplace, becaufe it doth nor well agree ,with what goes before, and lefle with that which followeth at the 29th verfe ; Loe all thefe things worketh God oftentimes, or (asour Margin hath it) twice and thrice with man. And therefore here Elihu rather intimates the variety of thofewayes by which God reveales himfelfe toman, then the fuf- ficiency ofany one of them. For though we grant anyoneof them fufficient, yet God out of his abundant goodneife is pleafed to reveale himfelfe more wayes then one, and more times then once. Thirdly , This once, may be taken exclufively ; fo in Scripture, once is once and no more,once and not againe ; or as we fay, once for all, and fo it is opposed to the repeating and ae`ling over of the fame thing. Thus Abifha fayd to David (a Sam: 26. S.) Clod bathdelivered thine enemy into thine hand this day , now therefore let mefinite him, Ipray thee, with thefpeare, even to the earthat once, and I will not fmite him thefecond time. Once fmiting is there oppofed to fmiting more thenonce ; As if he had fayd, I M m a will 267
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