Chapter XXXI.—Moses is Supposed
to Have Perceived Whatever of Truth Can Be Discovered in His
Words.
42. Thus, when one shall say, “He [Moses] meant as
I do,” and another, “Nay, but as I do,” I suppose that I am
speaking more religiously when I say, “Why not rather as both, if
both be true?” And if there be a third truth, or a fourth, and if
any one seek any truth altogether different in those words, why may
not he be believed to have seen all these, through whom one God
hath tempered the Holy Scriptures to the senses of many, about to
see therein things true but different? I certainly,—and I
fearlessly declare it from my heart,—were I to write anything to
have the highest authority, should prefer so to write, that
whatever of truth any one might apprehend concerning these matters,
my words should re-echo, rather than that I should set down one
true opinion so clearly on this as that I should exclude the rest,
that which was false in which could not offend me. Therefore am I
unwilling, O my God, to be so headstrong as not to believe that
from Thee this man [Moses] hath received so much. He, surely, when
he wrote those words, perceived and thought whatever of truth we
have been able to discover, yea, and whatever we have not been
able, nor yet are able, though still it may be found in them.