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"When he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you [the Apostles into ALL truth"-JESUS CHRIST.-John xvi. 13.

"But though we or an angel from heaven, preach ANY OTHER Gospel unto you than that which WE HAVE preached unto you, let him be accursed."-ST. PAUL to the Galatians i. 8.

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PREFACE.

THE substance of this Pamphlet having appeared very recently in a monthly periodical, is now by request republished, with additions, in a shape more adapted for popular circulation.

In preparing and revising it, the Writer's design has been to give what he believes does not exist, a condensed, yet clear and correct, description of the rise and real characteristics of the Mormon system.

He has been studiously candid, and has carefully aimed to restrain those ebullitions of ridicule and scorn for which in treating such a topic the opportunities are so multiplied and seductive. He has not wilfully mis-stated the smallest fact, and has been actuated by motives utterly inconsistent with the wish to hurt the feelings of any human being. But impartiality does not demand laxity; and if Error and the Author of error may claim their due, Truth and Righteousness must not be defrauded of theirs.

Besides, no religious error, having to do with fundamental doctrines, can be held, without inflicting most serious injury upon its recipients; such falsehood is distilled poison to the soul; and what less would it consequently be than a sin against the votaries and victims of spiritual delusion, to refrain from saying what it deeply concerns them to know? They may be offended, but they are always open to the apostolic retort-"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?"

The term "Exposure" on the title page may be thought to promise more than is performed; but it was adopted under the persuasion that where such a system as Mormonism is involved, an Exposition, which is the primary meaning of that word, would be the very best Exposure, in the current sense, which it could receive. To know whence and what it is, cannot it

to ensure its instant and thorough dtion, every reflecting mind and religious heart/

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MANCHESTER,

February, 1853.

MORMONISM,

&c., &c.

MORMONISM has added a new name to the English vocabulary, and another member to those "corruptions of christianity," which almost rival in number the "gods many and lords many," of Egypt and Hindustan. And it has proved itself a very formidable scion, if a very offensive one, of that prolific stock. A quarter of a century ago it had not in even a seminal form been deposited in the field of the world, but existed in its conceptional incipiency in one or two minds only (for to this day it is uncertain who has the dishonour of its paternity)—and now it has attained by the force of its nature and of human nature, and by the enthusiastic tilth bestowed upon it, an enormous magnitude, to which no better comparison can be offered than the tree that Nebuchadnezzar saw, that " grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth." Mormonism has its emissaries in every region of the globeamong polar snows and tropic suns-in the freest and most enlightened lands, and in others the most afflicted by political oppression and moral gloom.*

As did the Judæan pharisees, so do they, "compass sea and land to make a proselyte ;" and having

A official document reports that "during the last fourteen years, (from 1837 to 1851) more than 50,000 had been baptized in England, of which, nearly 17,000 had emigrated from her shores to Zionie Western America.

gained him, he runs imminent danger of being no fitter for heaven than his perverters. Would that their zeal "provoked very many" who have the ancient and only salvation to proclaim, "knowing nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Our intention is not to chronicle every step and stage of this imposture from its origination, to its present American settlements among the Rocky Mountains, and foreign propogation in all quarters of the earth; but, with such aid as is supplied us by miscellaneous 'authorized' publications, and also by an excellent historical compilation lately issued, and another and earlier production, whose titles are copied in a different place, we shall aim to present our readers with some clear and simple etchings of this notorious heresy.+ Before, however, passing on, we may observe that our bookshops are still destitute of a masterpiece treating Mormonism with sufficient historical and critical amplitude, impartiality, and ability. We have a title to offer to any talented scribe, who would like by the same effort to expose a system of falsehood, and to secure a niche in the temple of fame. "Mormonism: its History and Polity, Theological and Social," would be a plain and comprehensive title, under which an expert and brilliant pen might make itself renowned. What we have to say will best be distributed, for the sake of convenient perusal and easier referencee, into a series of separate paragraphs.

*See Appendix A

The ill-favoured idea which has become attached to the term "heresy" is not radical but acquired. Anciently a heresy (airesis) denoted a sect, or a body of doctrine, which might be good, bad, or mongrel. Mormonism may, therefore, be styled a heresy in the old and general sense, but looking to its principles and characteristics the serious enquirer will be disposed to apply to it the emphatic adjective which Peter uses in his 2nd. Epistle, ii 1.

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