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an Essay

رہی

ON THE

DIVINE AUTHORITY

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

BY DAVID BOGUE.

Fourth Edition.

These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye
may have Life through bis Name.

JOHN XX. 31.

MALACCA:

PRINTED AT THE MISSION PRESS.

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DVERTISEMENT.

IN-prefenting this Edition of the following Es

SAY before the British, and other Europeans, refiding in India, no apology is deemed neceffary. With refpect to the ESSAY itfelf, its own qualities will speak for it. The weight of the fubject the force and point of the reafoning-the perfpicuous and mafculine qualities of the ftylethe fterling good fenfe, found learning, and warm philanthrophy of the AUTHOR ;-these are the merits it difplays they will prove its beft apology; and make room for its paffage through every circle of fociety; while the regular divifion of the matter into fhort and comprehenfive fections, will render it acceptable to those who either want leisure or patience, inclination or fortitude, to encounter an unpartitioned book.

The upright in heart will profit by the perufal: their faith in the Gospel will be confirmed, and a confequent increafe of devout fentiment and practical piety, will be produced. And it may not perhaps be too much to fay, that the Deift, for whofe ufe the ESSAY was originally compofed, will here find himself addreffed in language polite and refpectful; and his fentiments investigated with fairness and candour.

The amazing difference between christianity as taught by Chrift himself, and by his Apostles, and as corrupted, mangled, and diftorted, by the pride, the inventions, and the fanaticifm of men, appears · in a very striking manner in the following ESSAY,

An attentive perufal may enable the reader to difcriminate. Having read to the end, he will fcarcely be able to prevent cxclaiming" May Chritianity, pure as it came from its Divine Author, fpeedily cover the earth as the waters cover the fea!"

The daily extending afpect of the British Dominions in India, feems to promife the moft important facilities for the fpread of divine knowledge. The many liberal minded, and pious perfons, who at present in this country, fill offices of the highest refponfibility, both in His Majefty's and in the Honorable Company's fervice; in the Army, Navy, Civil and Commercial establishments; in public and in private concerns, is also a most promifing circumftance. To thefe worthy perfons, the Editor prefumes to recommend the following work:-partly, that they themselves may be edified; but efpecially that either by lending it, or, giving it away, to young gentlemen rifing up in the fervice, the poifon of infidelity may be pre-, vented from infecting the minds of thofe into whofe hands the political and commercial interefts of thefe vaft countries, muft fhortly fall.

Many of the highly refpectable clafs of perfons now mentioned, have fons, brothers, nephews, relatives, and the fons of their particular friends, juft commencing the career of public life, under their eye, in India. These will foon be widely fcattered through the Provinces and Refidencies; and those whofe bufinefs lies in the fea, will have an extenfive intercourfe with the natives on the coaft, and in the Islands, from Surat to Canton-from Canton to the Cape of Good Hope. They will be furrounded with inducements to every vice.

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Vice indulged, deftroys the battlements of the mind, defeats, in a great measure, the end of the best education, and makes the arcets of Deifm eafy. If the fafcinations Deifm feize the hear aadu confcious guilt render it defirah! that fo pure and holy a religion as the which the Gofpel carcates, may not be true, then there is an end to the delicacy of moral feeling; and the bewitching idea that all religions are alike good, or none of them true, like an impoifoned foporific, will fpread its golden tho' alas! deadly flumbers thro' every power of the foul. To endeavour to prevent fo great an evil, is at once both an act and an evidence of true friendship.. Placed in a great variety of fituation, the young gentlemen juft referred to, will have an influence, each in his own fphere. The more firmly a conviction of the truth, excellence, and importance, of the Gofpel, be rivetted in their minds, fo much the more purity, moderation, juftice, benevolence, piety, and usefulness,, will be difplayed in their lives. There are perhaps few books of human compofition, in all respects,, fo well adapted to produce this conviction and thefe effects, in their minds and conduct, as the ESSAY before us is. The aggregate influence of fuch a conduct, on the improvement, the morals, and the happiness of fociety at large, would be very great: human woes would be diminished, and. the progress of the Gospel accelerated;-the light: of chriftian truth would gradually banish the darkness of Pagan philofophy, and Mahomedan error; and its fimple, ufeful, divine, Institu tions, take the place of that heterogeneous mass of degrading fuperftition, under which millions off the Inhabitants of India and China, now lie buried..

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