lettihe-' Oi(
The Manner nf TcMing False Prophets. 1 JOHN IV. He that Loveth not, Knoweth not God.
Satan and seduces into CTTor. 7. Resumption of the main theme (ch. 2. 29). Love, the sum of righteousness, is the
CHAPTER IV.
Ver. 1-21. Tests OF False Prophets. Love, tiik Test OF Birth from God, and the Necessary Fruit of Knowing His Great Love in Christ to its. 1. Beloved—Tlie alt'ectioiiale address wherewitli he calls tln ir test of our being born of God. Love flows from a sense of God's love tois: cf. v. 9 with cli. 3. 16, which v. 9 resumes; and V. 13 with ch. 3. 24, which similarly v. 13 resumes. At tlie same time, f. 7-21 is connected with the immediately preceding context, d. 2 setting forth Chri.<it's incarnation, t/ie great proof of God's iove (v. 10). Beloved an address appropriate to his subject, "love." love—a/J attention, as to an inapoilanl subject, every spirit— which presents itself in tlie person of a propliet. Tlie
Spirit of trutli, and the spirit of error, speak by men's love is from God as its fountain: especially that embodiment of love, God manifest in the flesh. The Father also is spirits as their orgalis. Tliere is but one Spirit of trntli, and one spirit of Antichrist, try—by tlie tests (r. 2, 3). All believers are to do so : not merely ecclesiasi ics. Even an angel's message should be tested by the word of God: much more men's teachings, however holy the teachers may seem, because, &c.—tlie reason why we must "try," or test the spirits, many false prophets—Not " propliets" in the sense " foretellers," l)at organs of the spirit that inspires them, teaching accordingly either trutli or error: "many Anticlirists." are gone out—as if fiom God. into t!te world—said alike? of good and bad propliets CJ John 7). The world is easily seduced (i. 4, 5). a. "Herelove (('. S). The Holy Ghost sheds lovea,s its first/c!<rt abroad ill the heart, knoweth God—spiritually, experimentally, and habitually. 8. knoweth not Greek aorist: not only knoweth not now, but never knew, lias not once for all known God. God is love—There is no Greek article to love, but to God ; therefore we cannot translate. Love is God, God is fundamentall.y and essentially love: not merely i.sloving, for then John's argument would not stand; for the conclusion from the premises then would be this. This man is not loving: God is loving'; therefore he knoweth not God IN so far as God is loving; still he might know Him in His other attributes. But when we take love as God's essence, the argument is sound: This man doth not in.", know . . . the Spirit of God—whether he l)e, or not, in tliose teachers professing to be moved by Him. Every spirit—t. e., Every teacher <:1-A\m\ng ins|)iration by THE Holy Spirit. confessetU—the truth is taken for granted as established. Man is required to co»i/n«.v it, i. e., in his teaching to profess it openly. Jesus Christ Is come in the flesh—a twofold trutli confessed, that Jesus love, and therefore knows not love: God is essentially love, therefore he knoivs not God. 9. toward \xs— Greek, "in our case." sent Greek, "hath sent." into the world— proof against Socinians, that the Son existed before He was "sent into the world." Otherwise, too. He could not have been our life (i-. 9), our "propitiation" (v. 10), or our ".Saviour"' (i'. 14). 11 is the grand proof of God's love. His having sent His only-begotten Son, that we might live through Him, who is the Life, and who h.as redeemed our forfeited is the Christ, and that He is cnme (the Greek perfect implies not a mere past historical fact, as the aorist would, but also the present continuance of the fact and its blessed effects) in theflesh ("clothed with flesh :" not with a mere
humanity, as the Docetre afterwards taught: He therefore was, previously, something far above flesh). His Jlesh implies His death for us, for only liy assuming life; and it is also the grand motive to our mutual love. 10. Herein Is love love in tlie abstract: Love, in its flesh could He die (for as God He could not), Hebrews li. !i, liitihest ideal, is herein. The love was all on God's side, none on ours, not that we loved God—though so altopet her wort li.v of love, he loved us—though so altogether uiiwortli.v of love. The Greek aorist expresses. Not that we did any act of love at any lime to God, but that He did the act of love to us in sending Christ. 11. God's love to us is the grand motive for our love to one another (cl). 3,
10, U, 16; and His death implies His love for us (.loliii ir>.
13). To deny the reality of His flesh is to deny His love, and so cast away the root which produces all true love on the believer's part (v. 9-U, 19). Rome, by the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, lienies Christ's projier liumanity. 3. confesseth not that .lesns Christ Is come lit tlie tlesli— Ii'.KN.EUS (3. S), Lucifer, Origen, on Slatthew 2.5. 14, and Vulgnte read, "livery
Hi). If—as we all admit as a fact. we. . . also—as being born of and therefore resembling our Father who is love. In proportion as we appreciate God's love to us, we love Him and also the brethren, the children (by regeneration) of the same God, the representatives of the unseen God. 1^. God, whom no man hath seen at any time, hath appointed His children as the risible recipieiils of our outward kindness which flows from love to Himself, "whom not having seen, we love." cf.
spirit which destroys (sets aside, or does aii fry icilh) Jesus
((Jlirist)." Cyprian and Polycarp support Knc/lish Version text. The oldest extant S'..S.S., which are, however, centuries alter Polycarp, ret-d, " Fvcry spirit that confesseth not.(i. e., refuses to confess) Jesus" (in His person, and all His ol Hces and divinity), omi tti iig " is coine in the flesh." ye have heard— from your Christian teachers, already Is It In the world—in the person of tlie false prophets (V. \). 4. Ye—Kinpliatical : Ye who confess .Jesns
7}ote, V. II, 19, 20. Thus v. 12 explains why, Instead (In
V. 11) of saying, " If God so loved us, we ouglitalso to love
(,'o(t," he said, "We ought also to lovo one am thrr." It we love one another, C>o<l dwelleth lit lis—for God is love ; and it must have been from Him dwelling m us that we drew the real love we bear to the brethren (v. 8, 16). John discusses this, «. l.S-10. his love—rather, "the love of (i.e., lo) Him" (ch. 2. .')), evinci'd by our love to HU representatives, our brethren. Is perfected lu us—John discusses this, v. 17-19. Cf. ch. 2. 5, " Is perfected," t. e., attains Its proper malurlt.v. i:i. " Herein." The token vouchsaled to us of God's dwelling {Greek, "abide" ) In us. IlKiugh we see Him not, is this, that He hath given us "ol His S|)irll" (ch. ,S. '24). 'Where the Spirit of God Is, there (iod is. One Spirit dwells in the Church: each believer receives a measiue "of" that Spirit in the proportion (;od IhiiiksHt. />(«'( is His rirst fruit Kialalians 5. '22). In Jesus alone (he Spirit dwelt without measure (.John 3.!i4), 14. And we— I'rimaril.v, tec apostles, I'lirlst's appointed
In contrast to "them," the false teachers, overcome them — (cli. .'3. 4, .5)— instead of being "overcome and brought into (spiritual) bondage" by them (2 I'eter 2. 1!)). John 10. 8, "), "The slioep did nat hear them:'' "A stranger win they not follow, bnt will flee from him: for llioy know not the voice of strangers." he that Is In you God, of whom ye are. lie that Is In the world— the spirit 111' Ant iciirist, the Devil, " the prince of this world." 6. of the world— tliey derive their spirit and teaching from the world, " unregeiieiatc' human nature, ruled over and possi'ssrd by .Satan, the prince of this world." [Al,- FORD.I speak . . . of the worhl— th(\v draw the matter of their conversation lioiii the lile, opinions and tV'el'.iigs Of the world. Ilie world hearetli I lieiii -(.loll Ii 1.'). IS, HI.)
'I'lie wiirtd loves its own. <>. We 'J'rue Icnclicrs of Christ : in colli riisl, lo them, are of Ood—and therefore speak of God: 111 contrast to "speak llie.v of the world," r. '>. knoweth <io<l—as his Father, bring a child "of Clod" (eh.
witnesses totestify to the fads concerning HIni. The Internal evidence ol the Indwelling Spii-ll (v. VI) is eorroboialed by the external evidence of the eye-wllnesses tO the fact of the Father liiivlug ".sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world." seen— f/'-(.Y'Ar, "ci>iiteniplaled " "at-
2. i:!, II). iK'iiretli us -( 'f. John IS. .'iT, " Fvery one that is of IIk! (rulh, hearetli my voice." Ilerehy—(r. 2-())~l!y their i-onfesslng, or not confessing, Jesus; b.v the kind of recejilloii given them respeetl vel.v b.v tliose who know Uod, and b.v lliose who are of the world and not of (iod. aplrit of \r\\tU~ine tSpiril which comes from God and
Icii lively belu'ld" (A'wr, ch. 1. 1 ). sent— (,'/<'(•<-, " /»n//i sent :" not an eiitlri'l.v past t'\u:t (aorist), but one o^' which the effects continue U'erfect). 15. shall confess—ouoo for all: lettihe-' Oi(/A. splrll of error—t/ie .yiirit which comes from i)'6i
1 JOHN V. He who Lovelh God, Kcepeth Jlis Conmiandmentt. The Apustlc Exhorlelh to Brotherly Love.
BO the Greek aorist means, that Jesiis is tlie S«»ii of God —and therefore "the Saviour of the world" {v.H). 16. And we John and his readers (not as v. 14, the apostles only), known and believed—True faith, according to John, is a faitli of knmcledgc and experience: true knowledge is a knowledge of faith. [Luecke.] to ns Greek, "in our case" (iV'oiIe, t). 9). dwelleth— GreeA:, "aliideth."
CHAPTER V.
"Ver. 1-21. Who are the Brethren Especially to bk Loved (ch. 4. 21); Obedience, the Test op Love, East THROUGH Faith, which Overcomes the World. Last Portion of the Epistle. The Spirit's Witness to thb Believer's Spiritual Life. Truths Repeated at the Close: Farewell Warning. 1. Reason why our "brother" (ch. 4. 21) is entitled to such ?oiic, );(z., because he is "born (begotten) of God :" so that if we want to sh»w our love to God, we must show it to God's visible representative. Whosoever— ffj-eeA, " Every one that." He could not be our "Jesus" (God-Saviour) unless He were "the Christ;" for He could not reveal the way of salvation, except He were a prophet: He could not work out that salvation, except He were a priest: He could not confer that salvation upon us, except He were a king: He could not be prophM, priest, and king, except He were tlie Christ. [Pearson on the Creed.] \>orn—translate, "begotten," as in the latter part of the verse, the Greek being the same. Christ IS the " onlj'-begotten Son" hy generation ; we become begotten sons of God by regeneration and adoption, everyone that loveth him that begat—si ncerel.y, not in mere profession (ch. i. 20). loveth him also that is begotten of him—I'iz., "his brethren" (ch. 4. 21). 2. By— Greek, "In this." As our love to the brethren is the sign and test of our love to God, so (John here says) our love to
Cf. with this verse, v. 7. 17, 18. (Cf. ch. 3. 19-21.) our love—rather as the Greek, "lovb (in the abstract, tlie principle of love [Alford]) is made perfect (in its relations) iwrtft t<s." Love dwelling in us advances to its consummation "with ns," i. e., as It is concerned with iis: so Greek. Luke 1. 58, "Showed mercy upon (lit., ivith) her:"
2 John 2, " the truth shall be ivilh us for ever." boldness —"confidence:" the same Greek as ch. 3. 21, to which this passage is parallel. The opposite to " fear," t;. 18. Herein
Is our love perfected, viz., in God dwelling in vs, and our dwelling in God {v. IG), involving as its result "that we can have confidence (or boldness) in the day of judgment" (so terrible to all other men, Acts 24. 25; Romans 2. 16). because, &c.—The ground of our "confidence" is, "because even as He (Christ) is, we also are in this world" (and He will not, in that day, condemn those who are like Himself), i.e., we are righteous as He is righteous, especially in respect to that which is the sum of righteonsness, love
(ch. 3. 14). Christ is righteous, and love itself, in heaven: BO are we. His members, who are still "in this world." Our oneness with Him even now in His exalted position above (Ephesians 2. 6), so that all that belongs to Him of righteousness, &c., belongs to us also by perfect imputation and progressive impartation, is the ground of our
God (tested by our "keeping his commandments") Is, conversely, the ground and only true basis of love to our brother, we know—John means here, not the outivard criteria of genuine brotherly love, but the inward spiritual criteria of it, consciousness of love to God manifested in a hearty keeping of His commandments. When we have this inwardly and outwardly confirmed love to God,we can know assuredly that we truly love the children of God. "Love to one's brother is prior, according to the order of nature {Note, ch. 4. 20); love to God is so, according to the order of grace (ch. 5. 2). At one time the former is more immediately known, at another time the latter, according as tlie mind is more engaged in human relations or in what concerns the Diviiie,honour." [Esrius.] John shows what true love is, viz., that which is referred to God as its first object. As previously John urged the effect, so now he urges the cause. For he wishes mutual love to be so cultivated among us, as that God should always be placed first. [Calvin.] 3. this is—the love of God consists in this, not grlevoiLs-as so many think them. It is "the way of the transgressor" that "is hard." What makes them to the regenerate "not grievous," is faith which "overcoraeth the world" {v. 4): in proportion as faith is strong, the grievousness of God's commandments to tlie rebellious flesh is overcome. Tlie reason why believers feel any degree of irksomeness in God's commandments is, they do not realize fully by faith the privileges of their spiritual life. 4. For—{Note, v. 3.) The reason why " His commandments are not grievous." Though there is a conflict in keeping them, the issue for the whole body of the regenerate is victory over every opposing influence ; meanwhile there is a present joy ta each believer in keeping them which makes them "not grievous." xv Untsoever— Greek, " all that is begotten of God." The neuter expresses the universal whole, or aggregate of the regenerate, regarded as one collective body John 3. 6; 6. 37, 39, 'where Bengel remarks, that in Jesus' discourses, what the Father has given Him Is called, in the singular number and neuter gender, all whatsoever; those who come to the 6'on are described in the masculine gender and plural number, they all, or singular, every one. The Fatlier has given, as it were, the whole mass to the Son, tliat all whom He gave may be one whole: that universtil whole llie Son singly evolves, in the execution of the Divine plan.' ovcrcometb—habitually, the world—all that Is opposed to keeping the commandments of God, or draws us ott' from God, in this world, Including our corrupt /J«7i, on which the world's blandishiiU'iits or threats act, as also including Satan, the prvice of this world, this Is the victory that overcometh love he\i\g perfected so that we can have confidence in the day of judgment. We are in, not of, this world. 18. Fear has no place in love. Bold confidence (v. 17), Ijased on love, cannot coexist with fear. Love, which, when perfected, gives bold confidence, casts out fear (cf. Hebrews 2. M, 15). The design of Christ's propitiatory death was to deliver from th'isi bondage otfear, but—"nay." [Alford.] fear bath torment Greek, punishment. Fear is always revolving In the mind the punishment deserved. [Esxius.] Fear, by anticipating punishment [through consciousness of deserving it], has it even now, i.e., the foretaste of it.
Perfect love is incompatible with such a sell-punishing fear. Godly fear of offending God is quite distinct from slavish fear of consciously-deserved punishment. The latter fear is natujal to us all until love casts it out. " Men's states vary: one is without fear and love; another, with fear without love ; another, with fear and love; another, without fear with love." [Bengel.] 19. him—Omitted in the oldest MSS. Translate, "We (emphatical: we on our part) love (In general: love alike and the brethren, and our fellow-men), because He (emphatical: answering to "we;" 6ecot(.se it J«as /Te tvho) first loved us in sending His Son (Greek aorist of a definite act at a point of time). He was the first to love us: this tliought ought to create in us love casting out fear (v. 18). 20. loveth not. , . brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen—It is easier for us, influenced as we are here by sense, to direct love towards one within the range of our senses than towards One unseen, apprecial)le only by faith. " Nature is prior to grace ; and we by nature love things seen, before we love things unseen." [Fstius.] The eyes are our leaders in love. "Seeing is an incentive to love." [OJcumenius.] If we do not love the fcrettren, the visible representatives of G3d, how can we love God, the invisiljle One, whose children they aref The true ideal of man, lost in Adam, Is realized In Christ, in whom God is revealed as He is, and man as he ought to be. Thus, by faith in Christ, we learn to love both tlie true God, and the true man, and so to love the brethren as bearing His image, hath seen—and continnally sees. 21. Besides the argument (v. 20) from the ooramon feeling of men, he here adds a stronger one from God's express commandment (Matthew 22. 39). He who loves, will do what the object of his.love wishes, he who loveth God— he who wishes to be regarded by God as loviuK Him.
The Keeping of God's Oommandmenls 1 JOHN V. is Light, a,nd not Grievow
—Greek aorist: "... that hath (already) overcome the world:" the victory (where faith is) h'ereby is implied as having been already obtained (cli.2. 13; 4.4). 5. Wlio— "Who" else "but he that believeth that Jesus is the Sou Of God'— ' the Christ" (t). 1)? Confirming, byatriuinphant question defying all contradiotion, as an undeniable fact, the Scholiast notices, the word "three" is masctdine, because the three things {the Spirit, the water, anii the blood) are symbols of the Trinity. To this Cyprian, 196, also refers, "Of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it is written, 'And these three are one' (a unity)." There must be some mystical truth implied in using "three" (Greek) In the masculine, though the antecedents, "Spirit, water, and blood," are neuter. That the Trinity was the truth meant is a natural inference: the triad soecl-
V. 4, tliat the victory which overcomes the world is failh. For it is by believing that we are made one with Jesus the Son of God, so that we partake of His victory over tlie world, and have dwelling lu us One greater than he who is in the world (eh. 4. 4). "Survey the whole world, and show me evt'U one of whom it can be affirmed with truth lliat he overcomes the world, who is not a Christian, and endowed with this faith." [Episcopius in Ali'ord.] 6. This—The Person mentioned in V. 5. This ./c,si(,<. lie tlint came t>y water and blood—"by water," when His minfied pointing to a still Higher Trinitj'; as is plain also from v. 9, "the witness of God," referring to the Trinity alluded to in the Spirit, water and blood. It was therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the sense of the text, and then, as early at least as the eighth century, was introduced into the text of tiie Latin Vulgate. The testimony, however, could only be borne on earth to men, not in heaven. The marginal comment, therefore, that inserted "in heaven," was inappropriate. It is on earth that the context evidently requires the witness of the three, the istry was inaugurated by baptism in the Jordan, and He received the Father's testimony to His Messialisliip and Divine Sonship. Cf. v. 5, "Believeth that Jesus is tlie Hon of God," with John 1.33,34, "The Spirit remaining on Him ... I saw and bare record that tills is the A'on of God." and v. 8, below, "There are three tliat bear witness In earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood." Corresponding to this is the baptism of water and the Spirit which He has instituted as a standing seal and mean of initiatory incorporation with Him. ami blood— lie came by " tlie blood of His cross" (so "by" is used, Hel)rews i).
Spirit, tlie water, and the blood, to be borne: mystically setting forth the Divine triune witnesses, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. Luecke notices as internal evidence against the words, John never uses "the Father" and " the Word" as correlates, but, like otlier New Testament writers, associates "the Son" with "the Father," atul always refers " the Word" to "God" as its correlate, not " the Father." Vigilius, at the end of the fifth century, is the first who quotes the disputed words as in tli text; but no Greek MS. earlier than the fifteenth Is extant with them. The term " Trinity" occurs first in the third century In Tertullian, adversus Praxean, 3. 8. agree In one—"tend unto one result;" their agreeing testimony to Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship they give by
12: " By," i. e., with, "His own blood He entered in once Into the holy place"): a fact seen and so solemnly witnessed to by John. "These two past facts in the Lord's life are this abiding testimony to us, by virtue of the permanent application to us of their cleansing and atoning power." Jesus Christ—Not a mere appellation, but a solemn assertion of the Lord's Person and Messiahsliip. not by— Greek, " not IN the water only, hut IN the water and IN (so oldest MSS. add);/if' blood." As "by" implies the mean through, or with, wh\ch He came: so "ih," the element in which He came. "The" implies that tlieirater anJ l/ie blood were sacred and well-known symbols. John Baptist came only baptizing with water, and tln-retiie sacramental grace in the ivaier of baptism, received by the penitent believer, by the atoning efficacy of His blood, and by the internal witness of His Spirit (r. 10) : answering to the testimony given to .Testis' Sonship and Messiahship by His baptism. His crucifixion, and the Spirit's manifestations in Hlni {Note, v. 6). It was by Ilia coming by ivatei- {i.e., His baptism In Jordan) that Jesus was solemnly inaugurated in office, and revealed Himself as Messiah ; this must have been peculiarly Important in John's estimation, who was first led to Christ by the testimony of the Baptist. By the baptism then received by Christ, and by His redeeming 6too(i-shed Alng, and by that which the Spirit of God, whose witness is Infallible, has bre was not tlie Messiah.' .lesus came tlrst to undergo Himself the double baptism of water and blood, ami then to liaptize us with the Spirit-cleansing, of wliich u-atcr is the sacr.'imental seal, and with His atoning blood, the efficacy of which, once-for-all shed, is i>erpelu.il in the Church ; and therefore Is the Messiah. It was llis shed
wiiicli llrst yia.\e water-baptism its spiritual signiflcancy. We are baptized into His death: the grand point of union between us and Him, and, through Him, beeffected, and still ert'ects, by Him, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, unite, aS the threefold witness, to verify His Divine Messiahship. [Neandkk.I 9. If, &c.—We do occpp< (and rightly so) the witness of veracious men, falliblo though they be, much more ought we to accept tlte inl'altwei'n us and God. It is the Spirit, &c.—t/ie Holj/ Spirit
Is an additional witness (cf. v. 7), besides the ic«/('r ami the blood, to Jesus' <So?is/i/;) and Mcssiahsliip. The Spirit attested these truths at Jesus' baptism liy di'sceiuling on Him, and throughout His ministry liy enal)ling Him to speak and do what man never before or since has s|)oken or done; and " it is the .Si)lrlt that beareth witness" of lible witness of God (the Father). "The testimony of the Father Is, as It were, the basis of the testimony of the Word and of the Holy .spirit; just as the testimony of the
S/iirit is, as It were, the basis of the testimony of the water and tht' blood." (Ukn(;ici..| for—This principle applies In the present case, kok, itc. whicii-In the oldest M.SS., " Jlecaiise He hath given testimony concerning His Son." What that testimony is we find above In i'. 1, 5, "Jesus Is the Christ, the Son of (Jod;" and below In v. 10, II. 10. hnth Ihe wltnesn-of Go<l, by His Spirit {v. S). In Iiiin- »flf—(Jod's Spirit dwelling in him and U'ilnes.iing that ".lesus is tlur Lord," "the Christ," and "the Son of (iod"
Clirist, now permanently in the Church: both In the inspired New Testament Scriptures, and in the hearts of believers, and in the spiritual reception of l)a|)( Isrn and the Lord's Supper, becttiixe the Spirit In trulli— It Is His essential /rM</i which gives His witness such infallible authority. 7. three-two or three witnesses were required l)y law to constitute adequate lest 1 niony. The only Greek M.SM. t»i any form which supjiort Ihc words, "In heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy (fhost, and these tliree are one; and there are tlirei; Mint bear witness In earth," are the Montfortlanus of Dublin, copied evidently from the modern Lai In Vulnate; I he Ravlanus, i-opl(;d from the Compluteiislan Polyglot; a .MS.
(e. I.T)). Till' witness of the Spirit in the believer /h'hi*?(/ to his own sonship Is not here e.xpressed, but follows as a consequence of believing the witness of God to Jesus' DU vine .Sonship. believeth not tJod—creilUs not His wit' ni'ss. ninde him n Ilnr—a consequence which miiiiy who virtually, or even avowedly, do not believe, may well ivt Najiles, with the words added In the margin by a recent hand; Ol tobonlanus, '2)18, of the nitecndi century, the Greek of which Isa translation iii the M(;conipnny Ing Lalln. All the old versions omit the words. The oldstartle back from us fi'arful blasplie|ny and presumptlou
(eh. I. Ill), believeth not the reeord— (JccrA-, "bellevctU not IN the record, or leitne.is." Refusal to credit (lod's testimony (" believeth not God") is Involved In refusal to 6«- est M.S.'-i. of the Vulgate omit them: the earliest Vulgate MS. whlcii has them lielng Wlzanburgeiisls, 111), ol the eighth cen'ury. A S(!hollum <|Uoted in Matlhici, shows that the words did not arise from fraud ; for In the words
/li re in (to rest one's trust In) Jesus Christ, Ilieob|«>ct of
(Jod's veciird or Irsliinoiii/. " 1)1 vl lie/((i7/i Is an assent unlO something as credible upon the testimony of God. This
Is the highest kind n( faith; because the object hn'.h th«
Jli all (/reek MSS., "there are three that bear rec.oiul," lus fi36