2Casteth out fear, by entirely filling the soul.

Feareth. If this fear be accompanied by any want of trust in God, not if it be want of confidence in ourselves.

4God first loved us.-The motive of trying to love God, is to make Him some return for His love.

"Hateth his brother.—If we love a person we cannot hate their images. 6Seeth. If you cannot love that which appeals to your senses, how can you love that which does not ?

"This Commandment.-The sum is, thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbour as thyself. with thy whole heart

Fear of God good:

Ist. To begin to love.
2nd. To continue in love.
3rd. To avoid occasions.
4th. To shun bad company.

5th. to seek help from others, in advice, etc.

Love of God:

Ist. Makes us confident. 2nd. Without assurance. 3rd. Makes us feel we are loved.

4th. That God's love never dies.

5th. That the longer we love the stronger we love.

CHAPTER V.

Of them that are born of God, and of true charity. Faith overcomes the world. Three that bear witness to Christ. faith in his name, and of sin that is and is not to death.

1. Omnis qui credit quoniam JESUS est Christus, ex Deo natus est. Et omnis qui diligit eum qui genuit, diligit et cum qui

natus est ex eo.

2. In hoc cognoscimus quoniam diligimus natos DEI, cùm DEUM diligamus et mandata ejus faciamus.

3. Hæc est enim charitas DEI, ut mandata ejus custodiamus: et mandata ejus gravia

non sunt.

4. Quoniam omne quod natum est ex DEQ vincit mundum; et hæc est victoria quæ vincit mundum, fides nostra.

5. Quis est qui vincit mundum, nisi qui credit quoniam JESUS est Filius DEI?

Of

1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and every one that loveth him that begot, loveth him also who was born of him.

2. In this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

3. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments, are not heavy.

4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith.

5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that "believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

The first verse of this chapter is a thesis started from the conclusion of the last. He gave reasons why we should love God; and signs by which that love might be known. Here he gives a new reason why we should love our neighbours, especially our brethren in the faith. Anyone believing in the orthodox faith and baptised becomes by the very fact a child of God. Those who love the parents cannot help loving their offspring, and the same reason holds good with regard to the spiritual parentage.

The lightening of the yoke of the commandments and the

CC

conquering of the world have been well illustrated in the boys and girls who underwent martyrdom for their faith.

1Is born.—This is a strong way of expressing what Our Lord taught regarding Baptism. To be baptised is to be born again, and no adult is baptised without faith in the Trinity.

"Him that begot.-This is a parity which is intended to bring home to every mind the duty of fraternal charity.

Keep His Commandments.—Nothing can be made a substitute for this duty of a Christian. There is no dispensation given in the Ten Commandments.

*Are not heavy.-Heretics in early times, at the time of the Reformation, and amongst the Jansenists, taught that it was impossible to keep the Commandments. This error has been condemned several times by the Church. Not only are the Commandments possible, but they are easy. "My yoke is sweet, and my burthen light."

Whatsoever.-The neuter is used here to make the proposition universal. Not only does a soul regenerated feel enabled to cope with and conquer the world, but anything else God chooses to bless.

"Our faith.-The faith of a Christian ought to move mountains.

"Believeth. Belief in Our Lord is not exclusive, but rather inclusive of all His teaching. Heretics take the exclusive, and we take the inclusive, as the corpus fidei.

Circle of Charity:

Ist. Is narrowed by sects.
2nd. Narrowed by freemasons.
3rd. Widened by Catholics.

6. Hic est qui venit per aquam et sanguinem, JESUSCHRISTUS: non in aquâ solùm, sed in aquâ et sanguine. Et Spiritus est qui testificatur quoniam Christus est veritas.

7. Quoniam tres sunt qui testimonium dant in cœlo:

A child's faith:

Ist. Withstands temptations. 2nd. Lives often under false teaching.

3rd. Woe to those who tamper therewith.

6. This is he that came 1by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in 'water only, but in water and blood. And it is the Spirit that testifieth that Christ is the truth.

7. For there are 'three that give testimony [in heaven, the

The words enclosed in brackets are omitted in most of the Greek manuscripts and in the Latin translations made from the same. This omission has caused some modern writers to question their authenticity. Indeed, the newest Protestant English version omits the words altogether without giving a reason.

For our purpose it is sufficient that they are found in our Vulgate which has always been received in the Church and approved in the Council of Trent in its present form. The decree of Trent has been confirmed by the Vatican Council, so that no doubt can exist in the mind of a Catholic, regarding the authenticity of the portion of the seventh and eighth verses which we have marked.

For the sake of those, within whose reach more learned disquisitions may not come, we shall briefly note the grounds upon which Catholic theologians and exegetical writers rest the authenticity of the words in question, and prove that the Church was guided by the spirit of truth in allowing them to remain in the canonical text. The latest and most solid defender of these words is Cardinal Franzelin. Many have preceded and followed him.

Our Vulgate edition of the Bible was made by S. Jerome towards the close of the Fourth century, It was merely a corrected translation. There existed a Latin Bible since the First century, which was used chiefly in Africa. The Greek language was used in Rome as common to all educated persons for the first four centuries of the Christian Era, and many of the Popes were Greeks. The Greek Bible was sufficiently intelligible to those who could read, and nearly all the New Testament was written originally in that language.

The words about which there has arisen a dispute amongst the learned since the time of Erasmus, are not found in the oldest Greek manuscripts extant in our time. Yet none of those is older than the Third century.

It is certain that in the Latin copy of the Testament which was used by the African Fathers of the Second and Third and Fourth centuries, the disputed text was found. From that time to the present the text has been quoted by most writers on the Trinity.

Tertullian, about A.D. 200, says: Ita connexus Patris in Filio, et Filii in Paracleto, tres efficit cohærentes alterum ex altero QUI TRES UNUM sunt non unus, Adv. Praxcam c. xxv.

S. Cyprian, about A.D. 230, says: Et iterum de Patre et Filio, et Spiritu Sancto Scriptum est. Et hé tres unum sunt.-De unitate Ecclesiæ § vi.

The Speculum of S. Augustine is quoted as having the text. Vigilius Tapsensis writes in the Fifth century and quotes it. In the Council of Carthage in 460, fifty years after the death of S. Augustine, the four hundred bishops there assembled, not only quote the text, but quote it as the basis of their faith in the Blessed Trinity.

The silence of the Fathers is no argument against the text, unless some Father can be quoted who positively rejects it, as spurious. S. Thomas, for instance, rejects verse 8, and yet it is received because the Church does not adopt his opinion.

Popes and Fathers, from the Fifth century to the present, have quoted it oftener than it had been customary to do before their time.

The omission of it from the Greek text is attributed to a copyist who thought he had finished, or put the conclusion of verse 8 after testimony in verse 7.

The Complutensian Polyglott made by Cardinal Ximenes in the Sixteenth century has the verses in question, and we know that Leo X. sent to Spain at that time the most ancient manuscripts kept till then in the Roman archives. It is supposed that these manuscripts were lost at sea on their way back to Rome, as no trace of them has since been found.

This is an abstract of the mode in which Catholic writers account for the omission of these words in the Greek manuscripts now remaining and in some of the Greek texts printed from them.

To reject the words altogether in face of the prescription of, at least, twelve centuries is certainly a very bold, if not a very unwarrantable, liberty to take with a text of Scripture.