7. Neither do they confess that they are awed by those citations from the Old Testament which are alleged as examples of lies: for there, every incident may possibly be taken figuratively, although it really did take place: and when a thing is either done or said figuratively, it is no lie. For every utterance is to be referred to that which it utters. But when any thing is either done or said figuratively, it utters that which it signifies to those for whose understanding it was put forth. Whence we may believe in regard of those persons of the prophetical times who are set forth as authoritative, that in all that is written of them they acted and spoke prophetically; and no less, that there is a prophetical meaning in all those incidents of their lives which by the same prophetic Spirit have been accounted worthy of being recorded in writing. As to the midwives, indeed, they cannot say that these women did through the prophetic Spirit, with purpose of signifying a future truth, tell Pharaoh one thing instead of another, (albeit that Spirit did signify something, without their knowing what was doing in their persons:) but, they say that these women were according to their degree approved and rewarded of God. For if a person who is used to tell lies for harm’s sake comes to tell them for the sake of doing good, that person has made great progress. But it is one thing that is set forth as laudable in itself, another that in comparison with a worse is preferred. It is one sort of gratulation that we express when a man is in sound health, another when a sick man is getting better. In the Scripture, even Sodom is said to be justified in comparison with the crimes of the people Israel. And to this rule they apply all the instances of lying which are produced from the Old Books, and are found not reprehended, or cannot be reprehended: either they are approved on the score of a progress towards improvement and hope of better things, or in virtue of some hidden signification they are not altogether lies.

7. Nec illis quae de veteribus Libris mendaciorum exempla prolata sunt, terreri se dicunt; ubi quidquid gestum est, figurate accipi potest, quamvis revera contigerit: quidquid autem figurate fit aut dicitur, non est mendacium. Omnis enim enuntiatio, ad id quod enuntiat, referenda est. Omne autem figurate aut factum aut dictum hoc enuntiat quod significat eis quibus intelligendum prolatum est. Unde credendum est illos homines qui propheticis temporibus digni auctoritate fuisse commemorantur, omnia quae scripta sunt de illis, prophetice gessisse atque dixisse: nec minus prophetice eis accidisse, quaecumque sic acciderunt, ut eodem prophetico Spiritu memoriae litterisque mandanda judicarentur. De obstetricibus autem, quia non eas possunt dicere prophetico Spiritu significandi futuri veri gratia, aliud pro alio renuntiasse Pharaoni, etiamsi aliquid ipsis nescientibus quod per eas actum est significavit, pro gradu suo dicunt approbatas et remuneratas a Deo. Qui enim nocendi causa mentiri solet, si jam consulendi causa mentiatur, multum profecit. Sed aliud est quod per se ipsum laudabile proponitur, aliud quod in deterioris comparatione praeponitur. Aliter enim gratulamur cum sanus est homo, aliter cum melius habet aegrotus. Nam in Scripturis ipsis justificata etiam Sodoma dicitur in comparatione scelerum populi Israel (Ezech. XVI, 52). Et ad hanc regulam dirigunt omnia mendacia quae proferuntur de veteribus Libris, nec reprehensa inveniuntur, vel reprehendi non possunt, ut aut indole proficientium et spe approbentur, aut significationis alicujus causa non sint omnino mendacia.