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DIVARICATION

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT

INTO

DOCTRINE AND HISTORY.

BY

THOMAS WIRGMAN, ESQ.

AUTHOR OF

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSCENDENTAL PHILOSOPHY,

AND THE ARTICLES

KANT, LOGIC, METAPHYSICS, MORAL PHILOSOPHY, AND PHILOSOPHY,
IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA LONDINENSIS

PART I.

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

LONDON:

TREUTTEL AND WURTZ, TREUTTEL, JUN., AND RICHTER,

SOHO SQUARE.

1830.

101. f. 589

LONDON:

F. SHOBERL, JUN., LONG ACRE.

Dedication

TO THE

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE AND CHURCH UNION.

Gentlemen,

In furtherance of the objects proposed by you-and to the importance of them no truly good man can be indifferent I beg respectfully to cast my MITE into your treasury of Christian information, by attempting to prove, on the solid basis of Reason, the undeniable fact of the "DIVINITY OF CHRIST," from the evidence of the Doctrine he promulgated to the world, whose absolute purity and perfect sublimity show at once that it could not be earth-born, but must have descended from those effulgent regions of never-ending bliss-heaven. This desideratum once accomplished, "CHURCH UNION" follows of course. For, where the Doctrine is universal, the community who adopt it cannot fail to be the same. Euclid affords us a proof of the force of doctrine which can never be refuted, because it is established on the solid basis of Reason alone, totally excluding all sensible phenomena.

Let this line of conduct be followed in "RELIGION;" it is in fact the only rational one, for here we have only to do with spirits: God is a spirit, the soul is a spirit—and the subordination of the will of Man to the will of God constitutes Morality and Religion -which Christ says can exist only in the heart.

When this spiritual communion is so thoroughly understood that the "Code of Laws" established by Christ are not only separated from the historical facts, through which they were given to the world, but assume the strict and positive form of a science; then, and then only, will there be a union in the Church never again to be dissolved; and the divine morality of Christ will be as commanding and as easy to be taught as the axioms of Geometry. It will assume the form of the "SACRED SCIENCE;" and then indeed we shall be enabled to exult in the fulfilment of the prophecythat the Gospel will be preached to all the nations of the earth.

Should this attempt merit your patronage and receive your able assistance, both in its accomplishment and promulgation, this glorious end may indeed soon be obtained. That this happy result may follow our united exertions is the pious wish of one who is devoted to truth, and has the honour to subscribe himself

Your fellow labourer in the vineyard,

THOMAS WIRGMAN.

INTRODUCTION.

All

A WORK proving, as the present is intended to do, the sublimity and divinity of the Christian Dispensation, from its own internal evidence, will be hailed by all good men as a consummation devoutly to be wished. former efforts to prove the divinity and truth of this heavenly doctrine, from the "Book" itself, have uniformly been considered weak and inefficacious, because they merely quoted texts out of the work to support its own merits. But a very little reflection will convince the most sceptical mind of the complete success of the present mode of proof. A very superficial perusal of the "Sacred Volume" will satisfy the most careless reader that this inestimable book contains matters of two very opposite natures; in order to do justice to both portions of the work, it will be obvious that each is susceptible of a very different kind of treatment.

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