As, then, the golden staters are many, but the gold is one, so too those who are exhibited to us severally in the nature of man, as Peter, James, and John, are many, yet the man in them is one. And although Scripture extends the word according to the plural significance, where it says “men swear by the greater22    Heb. vi. 16.,” and “sons of men,” and in other phrases of the like sort, we must recognize that in using the custom of the prevailing form of speech, it does not lay down a law as to the propriety of using the words in one way or another, nor does it say these things by way of giving us instruction about phrases, but uses the word according to the prevailing custom, with a view only to this, that the word may be profitable to those who receive it, taking no minute care in its manner of speech about points where no harm can result from the phrases in respect of the way they are understood.

ὥσπερ τοίνυν πολλοὶ μὲν οἱ χρύσεοι στατῆρες, χρυσὸς δὲ εἷς, οὕτω καὶ πολλοὶ μὲν οἱ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐν τῇ φύσει τοῦ ἀνθρώπου δεικνύμενοι, οἷον Πέτρος καὶ Ἰάκωβος καὶ Ἰωάννης, εἷς δὲ ἐν τούτοις ὁ ἄνθρωπος. κἂν ἡ γραφὴ πλατύνῃ τὸ ὄνομα κατὰ πληθυντικὴν σημασίαν ἐν τῷ λέγειν Ἄνθρωποι κατὰ τοῦ μείζονος ὀμνύουσι καὶ Υἱοὶ ἀνθρώπων, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, γνωστέον ὅτι τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῆς ἐπικρατούσης διαλέκτου κεχρημένη οὐχὶ νομοθετεῖ τὸ δεῖν οὕτως ἢ ὡς ἑτέρως κεχρῆσθαι τοῖς ῥήμασιν οὐδέ τινα τεχνικὴν περὶ ῥημάτων διδασκαλίαν ποιουμένη ταῦτα διέξεισιν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν ἐπικρατοῦσαν συνήθειαν χρῆται τῷ λόγῳ, πρὸς τοῦτο βλέπουσα μόνον, ὅπως ἂν ἐπωφελὴς γένοιτο τοῖς δεχομένοις ὁ λόγος, οὐδὲν ἀκριβολογουμένη κατὰ τὴν λέξιν, ἐν οἷς οὐδεμία βλάβη κατὰ διάνοιαν ἐκ τῶν ῥημάτων συνίσταται.