y the assailants of the passage, do not by any means prove
the point they are intended to prove; but admit of a sufficient and
satisfactory explanation.--Thirdly, it shall be shewn that the said
explanation carries with it, and implies, a weight of testimony in
support of the twelve verses in dispute, which is absolutely
overwhelming.--Lastly, the positive evidence in favour of these twelve
verses shall be proved to outweigh largely the negative evidence, which
is relied upon by those who contend for their removal. To some people I
may seem to express myself with too much confidence. Let it then be said
once for all, that my confidence is inspired by the strength of the
arguments which are now to be unfolded. When the Author of Holy
Scripture supplies such proofs of His intentions, I cannot do otherwise
than rest implicit confidence in them.

Now I begin by establishing as my first proposition that,

(1) _These twelve verses occupied precisely the same position which they
now occupy from the earliest period to which evidence concerning the
Gospels reaches._

And this, because it is a mere matter of fact, is sufficiently
established by reference to the ancient Latin version of St. John's
Gospel. We are thus carried back to the second century of our era:
beyond which, testimony does not reach. The pericope is observed to
stand _in situ_ in Codd. b c e ff^{2} g h j. Jerome (A.D. 385), after a
careful survey of older Greek copies, did not hesitate to retain it in
the Vulgate. It is freely referred to and commented on by himself[595]
in Palestine: while Ambrose at Milan (374) quotes it at least nine
times[596]; as well as Augustine in North Africa (396) about twice as
often[597]. It is quoted besides by Pacian[598], in the north of Spain
(370),--by Faustus[599] the African (400),--by Rufinus[600] at Aquileia
(400),--by Chrysologus[601] at Ravenna (433),--by Sedulius[602] a Scot
(434). The unknown authors of two famous treatises[603] written at the
same period, largely quote this portion of the narrative. It is referred
to by Victorius or Victorinus (457),--by Vigilius of Tapsus[604] (484)
in North Africa,--by Gelasius[605], bp. of Rome (492),--by
Cassiodorus[606] in Southern Italy,--by Gregory the Great[607], and by
other Fathers of the Western Church.

To this it is idle to object that the authors cited all wrote in Latin.
For the purpose in hand their evidence is every bit as conclusive as if
they had written in Greek,