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MORMON CHARGES AGAINST ALL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

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testimony of John concerning the restoration of the Gospel by an angel, and the testimony of Daniel concerning the stone cut from the mountain without hands, representing the latter-day kingdom of God, and we have, by a combination of all these testimonies, prophetic evidences of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, which should convince the most incredulous, and destroy Atheism out of existence."

Such is the argument of the great Mormon Apostle! After all, however, it is designed exclusively for the profane. He himself needs it not; he has higher, more immediate evidence.-This!

'And I now bear my humble testimony to all the nations of the earth, who shall read this series of pamphlets, that the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation, for the voice of the Lord hath declared it unto me."

But we must proceed, however, with our abstract of the theology of the Mormons, as it has grown out of and upon the Book of Mormon, as invented by Joseph Smith; and as it has been developed by the acuter men, such as Orson Pratt, who succeeded him in the management of the sect.

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For the last fourteen hundred years, according to the persuasion of the Mormon, the Church has been in a state of suspended animation. Mr. Orson Pratt, too, would prove the allegation out of the mouths of Christian controversalists themselves. "We believe," he states, in Remarkable Visions, No 6," "That there has been a general and awful apostacy from the religion of the New Testament, so that all the known world have been left for centuries without the Church of Christ among them; without a priesthood authorized of God to administer ordinances; that every one of the churches has perverted the gospel; some in one way, and some in another. For instance, almost every church has done away immersion for remission of sins.' Those few who have practised it for remission of sins, have done away the ordinance of the laying on of hands' upon baptized believers for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Again, the few who have practised the last ordinance have perverted the first, or have done away the ancient gifts, powers, and blessings, which flow from the Holy Spirit, or have said to inspired apostles and prophets, we have no need of you in the body in these days. Those few, again, who have believed in, and contended for, the miraculous gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit, have perverted the ordinances or done them away. Thus all the churches preach false doctrines and pervert the gospel, and instead of having authority from God to administer its ordinances they are under the curse of God for perverting it."

In corroboration of these views, we are reminded that Protestants

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charge on the churches of Rome and Greece the sin of apostacy, and Roman Catholics have charged with heresy all reformed churches;mutual recriminations which involve the predicated period of fourteen hundred years in the charge brought against it by the Mormon prophet. Mr. Pratt, indeed, in his Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," boldly declares, that "the whole Romish, Greek, and Protestant ministry, from the Pope down, through every grade of office, are as destitute of authority from God, as the Devil and his angels." And this state of things, (he says,) was prophesied by Paul, in the memorable words, that "the day of Christ shall not come, except there come a falling away first," and by other apostles in many texts of Scripture. The Mormons admit that the churches which have existed from the first century "have all had a form of godliness, while denying the power; and they yet stand in the same predicament."

"Such," says Mr. Pratt, in the work just alluded to," such was to be the religion of the latter ages, as prophetically described by the ancient apostles; and such is the religion of the Papal, Greek, and Protestant churches of the nineteenth century. The predictions were uttered eighteen centuries ago, and modern Christendom exhibits a

most perfect fulfilment. Instead of having apostles, prophets, and other inspired men in the church now, receiving visions, dreams, revelations, ministry of angels, and prophecies for the calling of officers, and for the government of the church, they have a wicked, corrupt, uninspired pope, or uninspired archbishops. bishops, clergymen, &c., who have a great variety of corrupt forms of Godliness, but utterly, deny the gift of revelation, and every other miraculous power which always characterised Christ's Church. These man-made, powerless, hypocritical false teachers, make merchandise of the people,' by preaching for large salaries, amounting in many instances to tens of thousands of pounds sterling annually. They and their deluded fol lowers are reprobate concerning the faith once delivered to the Saints. The faith which once quenched the violence of fire, stopped the mouths of lions, divided waters, and controlled the powers of nature, is discarded as unnecessary. The faith that inspired men with the gift of revelation-that opened the heavens and laid hold on mysteries that were not lawful to be uttered-that unfolded the visions of the past and future—and that called down the angels of heaven to eat and drink with men on earth,—is denied as being attainable in this age. The sound doctrine taught by the apostles which put mankind in the possession of these glorious gifts and powers cannot now be endured. The doctrines, commands, fables, traditions, and creeds, of uninspired men, are now substituted in the place of direct inspiration from GodThey are ever learning, but are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.' Guess work, conjecture, opinion, and, perhaps. in some instances, a belief in regard to the truth, are all that they attain to, while a knowledge they do not obtain, because they deny new revelation the only means of obtaining it. This great multitude of false teachers who have found their way into all nations, deceiving millions, resist the truth,' contend against the miraculous powers of the gospel, and reject inspired men, as Jannes and Jambres-the magicians, did Moses; but their folly shall be made manifest unto all men, as their's also was;' yea, all nations shall see the righteous judgments which shall speedily be executed upon them, for they shall, like Pharaoh's host, perish quickly from the earth.”

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Pursuing this course of logic, in connexion with the evidence of history Mr. Orson Pratt argues that it is neither unscriptural nor unreasonable to expect more revelation; and that, in fact, more revelation is necessary. This, however, is an argument in behalf of modern visions and prophecyings, and but little in favour of the Book of Mormon, which, like the Scriptures in general, deals with the past, not with the present. And this, as we have before remarked, is the main proposition about which the Mormon advocate is solici

tous. That proposition he uses both negatively and affirmatively. Negatively, as against all churches preceding his own :-e. g.

"As the Church of England and other Protestants do not profess to have received any new commission by revelation, but, on the contrary, require their followers to reject everything of the kind, it may be asked, how did they get their authority? It will be replied, that they received it from Wickliffe, Cranmer. Luther, Calvin, and various other dissenters from the Papal Church. But where did those dissenters get theirs from? They answer, from the Roman Catholics. But the Catholics excommunicated them as heretics; and surely if they had power to impart authority, they had power to take it away. Therefore, if the Romish Church had any authority, the Protestants, being excommunicated, can hold none from that source. But if the Catholics hold authority, they must be the true church, and consequently the Protestants must be apostates; but, on the other hand, if the Catholics are not the true church, they can have no authority themselves, and therefore could not impart any to others. Now the Church of England states in one of her homilies, that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, men and women, and children of all ages, sects, and degrees, of WHOLE CHRISTENDOM, have been at once buried in THE MOST ABOMINABLE IDOLATRY. (a most dreadful thing to think) and that for the SPACE OF EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS OR MORE.' Wesley in his 94th sermon states the same in substance; he says, · The real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church, was, because the Chris tians were turned heathens again, and had only a dead form left.' If, then, the whole of Christendom,' without one exception, have been buried in the most abominable idolatry for upwards of eight hundred years,' as the Church of England declares, and if they, because they are destitute of the gifts, are not even now Christians, but heathens as Wesley asserts, we ask where the authority was during the eight hundred years, and where is it now? Surely God would not recognise the most abominable idolators,' as holding authority; if so, the authority of the worshippers of Juggernaut must be as valid as that of idolatrous Christendom. But the idolatry of the whole of Christendom' must have been more corrupt, according to the Church of England, than that of other idolaters; for they call it the most abominable idolatry,' and most positively declare that there was no exception of either clergy or laity-of either man, woman, or child— all were buried in it. This being the case, (and we feel no disposition to dispute it,) there could have been no possible channel on the whole earth through which authority could have been transferred from the apostles to our day Therefore, as Wesley says, all Chris

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tendom are, sure enough, heathens,' having no power than the idolatrous pagans. If, then, the dom' have been without authority and power years and upwards,' we ask, when was the authority restored? how was it restored? and to what man or people was it restored? It could not have been restored to the papal churches, for they do not profess that any such restoration has been made to them; it could not have been restored to the Church of England and other Protestants, for they do not admit of any later revelation than the New Testament; consequently their own admissions prove most clearly that the whole of Christendom are without an authorised ministry; therefore it is indispensably necessary that more revelation should be given to restore the authority to the earth and call men to the ministry again, as in ancient days"

The Mormon writer uses the same proposition affirmatively as justifying the creation and ordination of official persons in the new church of Latter-Day Saints. Revelation, he says, is also necessary to point out their duties. "Without continued revelation the officers of the church can do nothing." "The apostles, and Jesus Christ himself, were under the same necessity in their time." Peter himself was one "of those visionary characters so much despised by modern religionists." So far the philosophical historian may recognise in these Mormon doctrines the spirit of reaction against that ultra Protestant opposition to mysticism of which Luther set the example. We therefore cannot do better than sum up the entire argument in the words of its clever though mistaken advocate.

"New revelation is the very life and soul of the religion of heaven, -that it is indispensably necessary for the calling of all officers in the church, that without it, the officers can never be instructed in the various duties of their callings, that where the spirit of revelation does not exist, the church cannot be comforted and taught in all wisdom and knowledge,―cannot be properly reproved and chastened according to the mind of God,-cannot obtain promise, for themselves, but are dependent upon the promises made through the ancients. Without new revelation the people are like a blind man groping his way in total darkness, not knowing the dangers that beset his path. Without prophets and revelators, darkness hangs over the future,― no city, people, or nation, understand what awaits them. Without new revelation, no people know of the approaching earthquake—of the deadly plague of the terrible war-of the withering famine-and of the fearful judgments of the Almighty which hang over their devoted heads. When the voice of living prophets and apostles are no longer heard in the land-there is an end of perfecting and edifying

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