Dogmas of the Tai-ping Belief. 529 



several months with Hung, is at the present moment a sort 

 of minister of foreign affairs in the insurgents' camp at Nankin. 

 The latest information respecting the Tai-ping enters so 

 fully into the character of the whole movement, and so 

 clearly dcvelopes its tendency, that no apology is needed 

 for laying before the readers of every class a brief sketch of 

 the more important and significant dogmas. 



The Tai-ping translations of the Old and New Testament, 

 though in the whole tolerably correct, yet are in certain 

 parts so imperfect that they implanted the most erroneous 

 ideas in the head of the " Celestial King." He conceived 

 his own visions and revelations as far more important, and of 

 far higher authority, than those of Holy Writ. His mission, 

 as he himself states it, is to be followed by a new revelation, 

 accompanied by numerous miracles, and a third book will be 

 given to the world, which is to supersede the Old and New 

 Testaments, and be called the " Tfue Testament." According 

 to Hung, both God and Christ have appeared in the human 

 form. Christ is not equal to the Father, that is solely God ; 

 he is also brought into connection with other redeemers, and 

 has a wife and children in heaven. 



The Celestial King and his son form with God and Christ 

 a Quaternity in Unity. The corporeal presence of the 

 Celestial King is that of the Godhead, and in the dis- 

 tempered imagination of the Tai-ping the government now 

 existing in Nankin is assuredly that of heaven itself ! 



VOL. II. a M 



