It is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth -- whenever its true meaning is understood. But I believe nobody will deny that it is often very abstruse, and may say things which are quite different from what its bare words signify.
¶ Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany (1615)
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/212gal.html
