Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/7

 INTRODUCTION.

writer of the present volume was sent out by the London Missionary Society, in 1816, to labour for the benefit of China.

The fundamental principle of this Institution is, that "its design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of church order or government, about which there may be a difference of opinion among serious Christians, but the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, to the heathen; leaving it to the minds of the persons whom God may call into the fellowship of his Son from among them, to assume for themselves such form of church government, as to them shall appear most agreeable to the word of God."

In conformity with this principle, no question was ever asked, or direction given to the author as to his personal views of church government, or what form of ecclesiastical polity he should adopt, in the event of his labours being successful abroad. After residing at Malacca and Penang for several years, he settled in Batavia, where he collected a congregation, and built a