Priesthood
Thou shalt not usurp dominion.
1. THERE are two Priesthoods: the Priesthood of an endless life; and the Priesthood of life.
15 words,
72 letters.
The Priesthood of an endless life is commonly called the Melchisedek Priesthood, or the Priesthood after the order of Melchisedek, in honour of Melchisedek, who blessed Abraham, and received tithes of him. Before his time it was called the Priesthood of the Sons of God, because those who hold this Priesthood are Sons of God.
2. In the Priesthood of an endless life are two Orders; that of Apostles, and of Priests.
16 words,
68 letters.
3. Of Apostles there are four Degrees.
6 words,
29 letters.
4. The first Degree is that of Lawgiver, and is Apostle, Prophet, Seer, Revelator and Translator. This Degree is sole, and gives the word of God as from his own mouth.1
30 words,
128 letters.
There is no word in language which properly expresses the varied duties of this Priesthood. It is the greatness of
[1 Ex. iii, 2, 4-6, 10, 15-17. vi, 2, 6. xx, 1-22. Deut. v, 5-21. D. & C. i, 4. ii, 1. iii, 42. xlvi, 1. xiv, 1, 2. li, 2.
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the everlasting Priesthood; and has all the gifts, and all the keys conferred on man. It is so full of itself that it carries the Church of God with it, and can both institute and act in place of every other Priesthood.
2. This Degree is only necessary for the establishment of the rest of God, and bringing in of everlasting righteousness on earth. A less degree of Priesthood has frequently stood at the head of the people of God on earth.
3. Enoch was called to this Priesthood, and, being faithful himself, but failing to redeem the earth, was translated. (Gen. v, 24.) And it seems that many who followed him were translated with him. (Jasher iii, 27-38. D. & C. xii, 1.)
4. Moses was called to the same Priesthood, and down to the time of receiving the Law of the Tables was engaged in the great work of making Israel a holy nation; a peculiar treasure above all people; a Kingdom of Priests. (Ex. xix, 5,6.) By this superiour Priesthood he was entitled to know the incommunicable name of God, which even Abraham did not know. (Ex. vi, 3.)
5. As the Israelites turned from God to calf worship, they were cut off from the rest of God, and were only saved from an entire destruction by coming into an inferiour dispensation, on the intercession of Moses. (Ex. xxxii, 7-14, 31-35.)
6. Hence, on the removal of Moses from his earthly ministry, this holy Priesthood was taken away with him, (D. & C. iv, 4,) and only a portion of the honour of Moses was put on Joshua, who succeeded him in the government of Israel. (Num. xxvii, 18, 20.)
7. Jesus Christ held this Priesthood, and was succeeded sucessively by Peter, James and John. John was the last Revelator in that dispensation. It is apparent that their authority was not equal to that held by him, though they held
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the keys of mysteries and revelations. For after his time no attempt appears to have been made to restore the Kingdom to Israel. Indeed, they were not of the proper lineage to bring about the restoration, not inheriting the promises.
8. The present dispensation was the necessary sequence of that, as that was of the preceding. Not only had the prophecy gone before that the Shepherd and Stone of Israel should come of Joseph, (Gen. xlix, 24. Ante p. 172. Note ii,) but that the house of David should be reestablished on the throne of Israel. (Ezek. xxxiv, 22-24. xxxvii, 21, 27. Jer. xxiii, 5, 6. xxx, 9. xxxiii, 15-26. Hos. iii, 5. Isa. lv, 3-5. Amos ix, 11. Zech. xii, 8.)
9. In the last dispensation the work of the gathering of the faithful and establishing the Kingdom of God could only be accomplished by the heir of David. (Ante p. 175. Note iii.) This was not only secured to David by God’s covenant with him, but it was sealed to the tribe of Judah by Jacob. (Gen. xlix, 8-10.)
10. An objection is sometimes made to a dispensation of the Kingdom, and the Law of God in the last days, because of the saying, “in time ye shall have no King, nor ruler; for I will be your King and watch over you;” “and ye shall have no Laws, but my Laws, when I come, for I am your Lawgiver.” (D. & C. xii, 5.) So far from showing that a dispensation of the Law of God will not be given, this text expressly shows that it will, and that none will have power to administer the Law, but such as are sent in the name of Christ; and that his Law shall so far prevail, that when the time of his coming arrives, his people will be subject to no Law but his.
11. Jacob began his blessing on Judah by saying, “Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be
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in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.” His dominion over the heathen is signified by having his hand in their necks. Over his brethren, by their bowing down before him. And the reason of this superiority is in that superiour adhesion to the covenants of God, which secured the praise of his brethren. (Gen. xlix, 8.)
12. Lest Judah should mistake the import of this language, and commence immediately to rule his brethren, in derogation of the power which Joseph held by revelation, (Gen. xxxvii, 5-10,) he next distinguished him as a lion’s whelp; that is, an heir of royalty, though strong as a lion, the true symbol of royalty. (Gen. xlix, 9.)
13. But fixing with greater exactness what was already stated, that he was speaking of what should befall Israel “in the last days,” (Gen. xlix, l,) Jacob goes on to say, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”* (id. 10.)
14. This language has evident reference to the birth of a Lawgiver, of the line of Judah, and not to the loss of the septre by the house of David. The style of speech aptly describes a birth, and its appropriate office is to inform Judah that though he was to hold the Kingly office, it was not till the last days.
15. With this interpretation agrees all sacred history. Within a few generations Moses was raised up a Lawgiver, though of the tribe of Levi, and was succeeded in the leadership of Israel by Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim. (Num. xiii, 8)
16. Among the Rulers of Israel after him were Tola, of
* In the Doway this verse reads, “The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent; and he shall be the expectation of the nations.”
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the tribe of Issacher, (Jud. x, 1,) Elon, of the tribe of Zebulon, (Jud. xii, 11,) Samson, of the tribe of Dan, (Jud. xiii, 2, 24. xv, 20,) Eli, of the tribe of Levi. (1st Sam. ii, 27, 28.) And when a King was called, it was Saul, of the tribe of Ephraim. (1st Sam. x, 1.)
17. And though after Saul, David, of the tribe of Judah, became King, and the Kingdom remained in his family for many generations, they were none of them made Lawgivers. In David and in his house the Lawgiver did not come forth of the thigh, nor between the feet of Judah. All the Kings of that line, not excepting David and Solomon, were subject to Prophets, whom God set up above them in power. The Prophets could set up and drag down Kings, and command them in their outgoings and incomings. (1st Sam. x, 1. xv, 1, 3, 22, 23, 28. xvi, 13. 2d Sam. xii, 1, 7, 9, 10. 1st Kings i, 38, 39. xii, 22-24. xix, 15, 16. xxi, 20-22.)
18. On the conquest of Judea, by the King of Babylon, the dynasty of David ceased, and was not restored at the end of the captivity, nor at any time previous to the coming of Christ. The Esdraick Temple was built under Persian Governours, selected without respect to their lineage. The Asmonean Kings were of the tribe of Levi. (1st Mac. ii, 54.) Herod was of Gentile stock.
19. Consequently, if this prophecy of Jacob be understood as speaking of the overthrow of the regal power in Judah, it took place several centuries before the coming of Christ.
20. But aside from that difficulty in the Christian exegesis, the gathering of the people was not to Christ. During the whole period of his ministry, Israel was subject to Gentile rule. He had very few followers among the Jews, and none among the Gentiles. The gospel did not go to the Gentiles, till after his death. He had the Priesthood of a Lawgiver,
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but no people to rule, for none gathered to him. He came to his own, and they received him not.
21. In the last days Joseph Smith, of the tribe of Ephraim, was called to the Prophetick office, the Shepherd and Stone of Israel, according to the prophecy of Jacob; (Gen. xlix, 24;) and after him James, of the tribe of Judah, and of the lineage of David, was called according to the prophecy of Jacob, (id. 10,) the prediction of Joseph in Egypt, (B. of M. 2d Nephi ii, 2,) and the covenant of God with David, (2d Sam. vii, 12, 15, 16. Ps. lxxxix, 19, 20, 25, 27-29, 36, 37,) and stands in the office of Lawgiver, having translated most of the Law given to Moses, organized and established the Kingdom of God, and established the Law of God in it.
5. The second Degree is that of Counsellor, and is Apostle, Prophet, Seer and King.
14 words,
63 letters.
1. As Viceroy, this Priesthood is capable of ruling in place of a Lawgiver in matters of administration and judgment. If there was an interregnum in the Priesthood of Lawgiver, the oldest Apostle of this Degree, associated in the administration, or if none was associated, then the oldest in fact would stand at the head till the place was filled.
2. Joshua succeeded Moses under this rule, having been ordained to only a part of Moses’ authority. (Num. xxvii, 18-23. Josh. i, 1, 2.) By that example Sidney Rigdon had a just claim, as against Brigham Young, to stand at the head, after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his Counsellor Hyrum. The only reason his claim was not absolutely valid was, that a successor was duly appointed and ordained.
3. Like nearly every man who sets up a false pretence to the Priesthood, he did not long rest upon this strong position;
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but, without waiting for the true successor to set up his claim, pretended to have obtained the most holy Priesthood, by some new mode, not known to the Law of God, and so fell.
6. The third Degree is that of Embassador. Of these there shall be twelve. They shall be Apostles and witnesses to the nations, and Rulers in all places where the Lawgiver shall send them.
33 words,
149 letters.
1. The Apostles have the duty chiefly of preaching the gospel in all places, where it has not gone. When all the world is brought into the faith, they will be the chief representatives of the supreme authority, to be sent to all places to preside in Conferences, Councils and General Assemblies, and to conduct the affairs of government in all great matters. As the representatives of the Lawgiver, they will exercise royal prerogatives in the great divisions of the earth.
2. The Degree of an Embassador is more honourable than that of the Kings of the earth; for these Embassadors speak by authority, and Kings, who do not obey them, will be cast down.
3. But high as is the Priesthood conferred on them, they have no right to stand in the place of the Lawgiver. They cannot fill the place of Prophet, Seer, Revelator and Translator. They have not the keys of mysteries and revelations. (D. & C. xi, 4. xiv, 1, 2. li, 2. ciii, 39.)
4. It does not appear by the Scriptures that before the time of Jesus Christ this Quorum existed. In Moses’ time twelve were appointed to go and look out the land of Canaan, but their office was but for a short period. There seems to have been no officework for this Priesthood, till the gospel was sent to the nations.
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5. After the time of Jesus, the conducting of the affairs of the Saints remained in the hands of those who were of the Twelve during his time, and many have, therefore, imagined that the Twelve stood at the supreme head of the Church. this is an errour. Peter was raised out of the Quorum of the Twelve, to the Presidency of the Church.
6. The intention to do so was announced previous to the transfiguration. Jesus said to Peter alone, “I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. xvi, 19.) To Peter alone, Jesus, after the resurrection, said, “Feed my lambs; feed my sheep;” (John xxi, 15-17;) signifying that he was to give the words of life, not only to believers, but to preachers.
7. And it is evident that Peter was in fact taken out of the Twelve. The apostacy of Judas made but a single vacancy in the Twelve, and that was filled by Matthias. (Acts i, 21-26.) Yet, without the removal of any other of the Apostles, Paul was very soon called to the Apostleship, and Peter took the general supervision of all the affairs of the Church.
8. Hence Peter, as the general head of the Church, addressed his epistles to the believers throughout the earth; whereas, Paul, as one of the Twelve, addressed his to those Churches in his jurisdiction.
9. John, also, after Peter’s time, acted as Revelator to the Church, giving them the word of God to guide them in the ages to come; and also wrote a general epistle to guide the fathers of the faith, as well as new disciples. (1st John ii, 12-14.)
10. In the present dispensation twelve Apostles were call-
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ed and ordained to this ministry. (D. & C. xlii, 5, 6.) In 1837 a great falling away took place at Kirtland; and the Twelve assumed authority in governing the Church, in derogation of the right of Joseph the Prophet; but God rebuked them, saying, “Rebel not against my servant Joseph, for, verily I say unto you, I am with him, and my hand shall be over him.” “See to it that ye trouble not yourselves concerning the affairs of my Church in this place, but purify your hearts before me, and then go ye into all the world and preach my gospel unto every creature; for unto you (the Twelve) and those (the First Presidency) who are appointed with you to be your counsellors and your leaders is the power of this Priesthood given, for the last days, and for the last times.” (D. & C. civ, 6, 7.)
11. Notwithstanding this, at the death of Joseph, Brigham Young claimed, in behalf of the Twelve, to supercede the entire First Presidency and stand at the head of the Church; urging upon the Saints that such was the true order, and that the Twelve had not been suffered to fill their proper place during the life time of Joseph;* and in this claim was sustained by an immense meeting of the Saints, hurriedly assembled together at Nauvoo, the 8th of August, 1844.
12. One week later Brigham put forth an epistle to the
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President Young then proceeded to speak, and give his views of the present situation of the Church, now that the Prophet and Patriarch were taken from our midst by the wickedness of our enemies. For the first time since he became a member of the Church; a servant of God, a messenger to the nations in the nineteenth century; for the first time in the Kingdom of God, the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, chosen by revelation, in this last dispensation of the gospel for the winding up scene, present themselves before the Saints to stand in their lot, according to appointment. While the Prophet lived, we all walked by sight; he is taken from us, and we must now walk by faith. After he had explained matters so satisfactorily that every Saint could see that Elijah’s mantle had truly fallen upon the Twelve, he asked the Saints what they wanted. Do you want a guardian, a Prophet, a spokesman, or what do you want? If you want any of these officers, signify it by raising the right hand. Not a hand was raised.
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whole Church, vindicating this claim,* and it was generally acceded to in the Church. A very few followed the Prophet James, and as the Twelve could not stand against the arguments presented by his followers, they finally changed their position, acknowledged their former errour, and attempted to patch it up by electing Brigham Young First President, and H. C. Kimball and Willard Richards Counsellors, which they accomplished at Winter Quarters, Dec. 24th, 1847.
13. This did not help their case in the least; for the same Law which placed the Twelve under the direction of the First President, made it necessary that the successor of Joseph should be appointed by revelation of God, through him, (D. & C. xi, 4. xiv, 1, 2. li, 2. lxxxv, 2,) and that he should be ordained by an Angel. (D. & C. xiv, 2, compared with 1, 2, 3. Ante p. 165. Note. Ordination by Angels.) They only succeeded in bringing Brigham Young into the Prophetick office by a revelation of the will of man, and no ordination at all.
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*AN EPISTLE OF THE TWELVE.
TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS,
IN NAUVOO AND ALL THE WORLD—GREETING.
BELOVED BRETHREN:— * * * You are now without a Prophet present with you in the flesh to guide you; but you are not without Apostles, who hold the keys of power to seal on earth that which shall be sealed in heaven, and to preside over all the affairs of the Church in all the world; being still under the direction of the same God, and being dictated by the same spirit, having the same manifestations of the Holy Ghost, to dictate all the affairs of the Church in all the world, to build up the Kingdom upon the foundation that the Prophet Joseph has laid, who still holds the keys of this last dispensation, and will hold them to all eternity, as a King and Priest to the Most High God, ministering in heaven, on earth, or among the spirits of the departed dead, as seemeth good to him who sent him.
Let no man presume for a moment that his place will be filled by another; for, remember, he stands in his own place and aways will; and the twelve Apostles of this dispensation stand in their own place and always will, both in time and in eternity, to minister, to preside and regulate the affairs of the whole Church. BRIGHAM YOUNG,
President of the Twelve
Nauvoo, August 15th, 1844.
—Times and Seasons.
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14. At the same time James stood in this Priesthood, the heir of David, duly called by revelation of God to be a Lawgiver, an Apostle and a Prophet of the Most High God, ordained by the highest instituted power in heaven or on earth.
15. Nine days before his martyrdom, Joseph received and wrote a revelation containing this calling, and put it in the confidential archives of the Church. At the same time he sent the appointment to James in a letter. At the very moment of Joseph’s death he was ordained according to the Law of God, and has from that time filled the office. Only two of the Twelve, John E. Page, and William Smith, acknowledged his calling, and the others being tried and condemned, their places were filled.
7. The fourth Degree is that of Evangelist.1 Evangelists are Apostles, and witnesses of the Kingdom, to whatever nation they are sent. Seven are a full Quorum; and there shall be but one Quorum to any nation, kindred, tongue or people.
40 words,
184 letters.
The general duties of Evangelists are the same as of the Twelve. But their mission is only to a single nation. Very few have been sent, and a Quorum has never been organized in this dispensation.
8. Of Priests there are, two Degrees.
6 words,
27 letters.
9. The first Degree is that of High Priests.
8 words,
33 letters.
All inferiour Kings, Patriarchs, or heads of tribes, and Nobles, or heads of clans, ought to be of this Priesthood.
[1 Acts xxi, 8. Eph. iv, 11. 2d Tim. iv, 6. D. & C. iii, 17. civ, 8.
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They who are faithful in the calling, have the gift of prophecy. Hence High Priests are frequently spoken of under the name of Prophets. (1st Sam. x, 5, 6, 9, 10. 1st Kings xviii, 4. Neh. vi, 7. Isa. xxix, 10. xxx, 10. Jer. ii, 8, 26. iv, 9. v, 13. viii, 1. xiii, 13. xiv, 13. xxiii, 14, 15. xxvi, 7, 16. xxvii, 15, 16, 18. Ezek. xiii, 3, 4. xxii, 25, 28. Amos ii, 11, 12. Mic. iii, 6, 11. Zeph. iii, 4. Zech. xiii, 4. Acts xi, 27, 28. xiii, 1. xv, 32. 1st Cor. xii, 28, 29. xiv, 29. Eph. iii, 5. iv, 11.)
10. The second Degree is that of Elders.
7 words,
29 letters.
In degree of Priesthood the Seventies are the same as Elders. They have a diffierent mission, and are therefore classed separate, and placed in different Quorums, with a different discipline.
11. In the Priesthood of life are three Orders; that of Priest, of Teacher, and of Deacon.
16 words,
67 letters.
1. The Priesthood of life is commonly called the Aaronick Priesthood, after Aaron, who, with his family, in their gene-rations, held that Priesthood, to the exclusion of the rest of Israel, from the time of Moses till Jesus Christ.
2. This honour was bestowed upon the tribe of Levi, for having stood firm against the rest of Israel while Moses was in the Mount receiving the Ten Commandments; and slaying with the sword those who engaged in idolatry; and they became Priests to the other tribes; whereas, but for the falling away, all Israel would have been Priests to the rest of the nations of the earth. When the gospel went to other nations, the restriction of this Priesthood to one tribe ceased.
3. From the Biblical history, it would seem strange that Aaron, who made the calf, should have been placed at the
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head of this Priesthood. But, in truth, be was compelled, on pain of death, to make it. (Jasher lxxxii, 13, 14.) Aaron had, in fact, induced those worshipping the calf to put off their armour, (Ex. xxxii, 25,) so that when Moses called for those who were on the Lord’s side to take up the sword and slay the idolaters, the tribe of Levi alone were found armed, and made a great slaughter of the other tribes. Aaron, instead of being guilty of idolatry, took the most efficient means of making a full end of it. (id. 26-28.)
4. Aaron, therefore, by his personal conduct, was worthy to stand at the head of this Priesthood, according to his rank as the Chief, or Prince of the tribe of Levi. This right never extended beyond the Tabernacle, and the Temple at Jerusalem, and the ordinances and ceremonies connected therewith.
12. Of Priests, of the Priesthood of life, there shall be a Chief Priest, a first and second High Priest, and a Leader of each Course of Priests, to every Temple.
30 words,
123 letters.
In the Bible the Chief Priest of the Temple is called High Priest, and those next him Chief Priests; but such a translation does violence to the truth, because a Priest might be high in the Priesthood, and not Chief; but Chief is evidently above all.
13. This Priesthood shall be divided into Courses, according to the nature of their duties; and officers appointed in the several Courses, to guide and direct in the duties of the Course. In organizing the Courses, those may be included who have been ordained to a higher Priesthood.
47 words,
227 letters.
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1. Until Temples are completed, the principal Courses will be Sacrificators and Singers. After that other Courses will be necessary.
2. As women may be Priests, of the Course of Singers, so it is not unlawful that a woman should be Leader; and in the Synagogues, it may often be expedient to appoint a woman Leader of the Singers.
14. Of Teachers there are five Degrees; Rabboni, Rabbi, Doctor, Ruler, and Teacher.
12 words,
62 letters.
This Priesthood, in all its Degrees, may be conferred on women, as well as men; and ought to be conferred on the learned, who aid in improving the publick mind, though not professional Teachers.
15. Of Deacons there are three Degrees; Marshals, Stewards, and Ministers.
10 words,
57 letters.
Total—15 sec., 290 words, 1,318 letters.
NOTE I.—NECESSITY OF A PRIESTHOOD.
1. Men never institute a Law, without officers to be the keepers, expounders and administrators of that Law. Should they do so, the endless questions of interpretation arising in practice would nullify the Law.
2. When God revealed his Law to men, he instituted a Priesthood, and set it in order, to be the keepers, the expounders and the administrators of his Law. Hence the say-ing, “No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2d Pet. i, 20.)
3. Without such a Priesthood, qualified to truly expound
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the word of God, the Scriptures would be wrested by those who do not understand them, to their own destruction. (1st Cor. ii, 16. 2d Pet. iii, 16.) The instructions of the authorized Priesthood should be received as an interpretation of the Law, and as obligatory on the faithful. (Deut. xviii, 15, 18, 19. xxxii, 7. Acts iii, 22, 23. 1st Cor. xi, 2. 2d Thess. ii, 15. iii, 6. 2d Tim. i, 13. ii, 2. iii, 14.)
4. If any one had for a moment imagined that it would be consistent and wise in God to institute a Law among men, without also instituting a body of men to keep, expound and administer that Law, the result of the experiment, which has been tried with the Bible, ought to brush away all such imaginings.
5. So poorly has the Bible been kept, that it is in dispute among the learned, whether numerous Books in it ought not to be expunged; and equally in dispute whether numerous Books, not contained in it, ought not to be inserted. The leading question of this nature is, as to the Books which, in Protestant Bibles, are called the Apocrypha. But great numbers of learned Christians entirely discard the Books of Ruth, Esther, Canticles, and Daniel, and not a few Jude and Revelations. On the other hand, many allow the Book of Jasher, and several later works which have been gathered up, and published under the name of the Apocrypha of the New Testament.
6. Aside from these questions, as to what Books are entitled to a place in the Christian Bibles, there are other questions equally grave as to what is contained in the Books. More than thirty thousand variations occur in the different exemplars of the Scriptures, without any means whatever of determining which is the right reading. Though many of these variations are of trifling moment, great numbers of them
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go to the sense of the reading, and some have a direct bearing on the most difficult questions of doctrine. Several of the most important controversies in the Christian world turn upon passages of disputed validity, and would be decided in a moment by erasing the alleged forgeries.
7. Surely these facts are enough to show that there ought to be an authorized keeper of the Law, having power to determine what is Law, and what are interpolations. But on the interpretation, it is enough to know that more than five hundred various Christian Churches have grown up, differing in faith and discipline, all professing to conform to the Bible, and each justifying its difference by its interpretation of the same word.
8. For the rest, if it be true “that the Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless disobedient; for the ungodly, and for sinners; for unholy, and profane; for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers; for manslayers; for whoremongers; for them that defile themselves with mankind; for menstealers; for liars; for perjured persons; and for things contrary to sound doctrine,” (1st Tim. i, 9, 10,) then it is necessary that there be administrators of the Law of God, with power to punish the disobedient and rebellious.
9. For such persons will not yield, except by compulsion, to a righteous Law. The inducement of good order and general peace and happiness, is not sufficient to restrain them. They will not be governed by precepts, but only by the mandate which says, Thou shalt and thou shalt not, and compels obedience by penalties, as well as induces it by rewards. To make a Law for such men, without officers to enforce it, would be vain folly. And the fact that God’s Law is against such, should admonish all that it is to be enforced by rewards and punishments, as well as inculcated by precept.
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NOTE II.—LOSS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
1. It clearly appears from the old Scriptures, as well as the recent revelations, that no one can act in the name of God; that is, no man can act in the Priesthood, but he that is called by revelation of God, and ordained by the hands of those holding the Priesthood. (Ante i, 2, pp. 20, 21.)
2. Thus the call of Joshua was revealed to Moses, by the word of God, and he was ordained under Moses’ hand. (Num. xxvii, 18, 23. Deut. xxxiv, 9.) Aaron also was called by direct revelation, (Ex. xxviii, 1,) and was consecrated by Moses, by most august ceremonies. Paul, speaking on this subject, says, “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Heb. v, 4.) So all- pervading did he regard this rule, that he goes on to show that Jesus Christ himself did not assume the Priesthood, but was elevated to it in conformity with this rule.
3. The Apostles practiced by this rule, and held that only by it could a qualified Priesthood be obtained. Paul, in exhorting Timothy, says, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery.”* (1st Tim. iv, 14.) Thus the gifts necessary to a faithful and successful ministry are supposed to be conferred with the Priesthood, in the manner determined by the Law of God.
4. This being the rule in God’s Law, it is a matter of unquestionable fact, established by all history, that all Christendom are destitute of the Priesthood. There is not a single
*In the Doway this verse reads, “Neglect not the grace which in in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the imposition of the hands of the Priesthood.”
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one of all the Christian Churches which makes the slightest pretension to having a Priesthood, so called and ordained.
5. The Roman Catholicks, and several of the Eastern Churches, do claim a regular succession of ordinations, from the Apostles down to the present time, and possibly some of them may maintain their claims by history, to that extent; but the calling of their Priesthood has for ages been anything else but by the word of God. In the Levantine countries, the calling of the Priesthood was, from the time of Constantine till the prevalence of Mohammedanism, for the most part in the hands of the civil power.
6. During the long struggle between Mohammedanism and Christianity, it passed through numerous vicissitudes, frequently following the fate of war. Since the Turkish power was firmly seated, the Priesthood is generally purchased with money. (Goodrich’s History of All Religions, pp. 165,169.)
7. In the Roman Catholick Church, the control of the Priesthood has been kept as much as possible in the hands of the Pope and Bishops. But these do not make the slightest pretence that candidates for the Priesthood are selected by revelation. Moreover, it has often occurred that in order to prevent a schism of a national Church, and losing his power over it altogether, the Pope has been obliged to yield the selection of Bishops to the civil power, reserving to himself only the right of investure; so that Bishops, chosen by the fiat of the King, and not by the will of the Pope, and much less by the voice of God, made Priests whomsoever they would, or such as the State which gave them power desired them to Consecrate.
8. As for the Popes, on whose regular succession the Romanists principally rely to sustain their claim to the Priesthood, in succession from the Apostles, they are not ordained
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at all. That is, they are never ordained Popes or Bishops of Rome. But any one who has been ordained Bishop, no matter to what See, on being elected Bishop of Rome, enters upon the Papal office without any further ordination. Popes, therefore, are ordained to no Priesthood, but that of Bishop. A succession of ordinations to the Episcopal office is problematical; and as for a call, they are generally elected by a Conclave, in which all manner of diplomacy and national intrigue have influence; and the election has, on several occasions, been determined by war.
9. If all the old Christian Churches are unable to exhibit a Priesthood called of God, Protestants, and other modern Churches, can show neither a regular call, nor a succession of ordinations, from the time of the Apostles. They have no Priesthood beyond what men, by their mere motion, without authority from God, can confer.
10. The Episcopal Church, from which a majority of the Protestant Churches derived their existence and their Priesthood, is an offshoot of the Roman Catholick Church. Before examining its claims as the true Church of God, it is well to bring to mind that God had revealed but one faith, established but one system of religion; that true religion cannot be derived from false, and that a true Priesthood can be derived from none but those who possess it.
11. The Roman Catholick Church either was or was not the Church of God. If it was the Church of God, all who separated and dissented from it, separated and dissented from the true Church. They are false.
12. If it was not the Church of God, then as all Protestants derived whatever they have of Priesthood from it, they derived their Priesthood from something other than the Church of God, and have no authorized Priesthood.
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13. So it makes little difference with the pretensions of Protestants, whether the Roman Church was or was not true. They equally fall to the ground, whatever may be true of that. But they have given it its character as idolatrous, and incurably corrupt.
14. In one of the authorized homilies of the Episcopal Church, it is alleged, “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, and that for the space of eight hundred years or more.” And John Wesley, a Deacon of the Episcopal Church, but the Father of the Methodists, says, “The real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were no longer to be found in the Christian Church, was because the Christians were turned Heathens again, and had only a dead form left.” (Sermon 94.)
15. Such being the character of the Roman Catholick Church, when some of the Bishops and Priests protested against her authority or her corruptions, and set up separate Churches, what Priesthood had they? The Heathen, the Idolatrous Priesthood to which they were ordained in Rome? They could scarcely derive a true Christian Priesthood through that eight hundred years of most abominable idolatry, which overwhelmed all Christendom.
16. In behalf of the Episcopacy of England, it is often claimed that they have a separate succession of Bishops and Clergy, derived from Saint Paul, and are not dependent on the Popes of Rome for their Priesthood. But after this declaration, that all Christendom, Clergy and laity, men, women and children, were idolaters for eight hundred years, it is of little consequence from whence they commence deriving their Priesthood. They bring it through that idolatry; for they
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make no pretence of a new dispensation, of the Priesthood, at the time of the Reformation.
17. Nor, if it is admitted that the first Bishops in England were ordained by Paul, can any show of evidence be produced of a succession of ordinations from them, through the period of Papal control in England. Many, and for ought we know, all the Bishops received their ordinations in Rome.
18. But at the time of the separation, most of the Bishops adhered to Rome, and were cast out, and new Bishops put in their places by the civil power, and of those who remained, it cannot be shown that a single one was ever ordained at all, by any one who had himself been ordained. Moreover, the doctrine long prevailed in England, that the Episcopal authority was rightly derived from the civil power, as it has in fact been derived ever since the separation; and the form of ordination was for a long time so defective, as not to amount to an ordination at all.
19. In fact, therefore, the Episcopal Church have not Bishops, who can show a succession derived from as far back as the end of this eight hundred years of idolatry, say nothing of going through it to the Apostle Paul. And, as the Priests are ordained by the Bishops, and not in succession by each other, they derive their power from the same source.
20. Thus tracing the history of Episcopal and Priestly succession in the Episcopal Church, back to the time of Henry VIII, King of England, and it is derived in fact, from laymen, set up by the State; and by their own highest pretentions, is only derived from an idolatrous fountain.
21. Lutherans only derive their Priesthood from Martin Luther, who was ordained a Priest of the Roman Catholick Church, and possibly from some of his associates who had no different authority. They were not ordained Priests in
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the Lutheran Church, but Priests in the Roman Catholic Church, which gave them power to preach and establish the doctrine and discipline of that Church; not to overthrow it. If the Roman Catholick Church was the Church of God, it cast them out as schismaticks and hereticks, and delivered them to anathema. If it was not the Church of God, it could not give them the Priesthood of God.
22. The Methodists have an anomalous form of Episcopacy, of a most singular description. John Wesley, a Deacon of the Episcopal Church in England, ordained a great number of men to preach, who were not Priests in any Church, for he did not allow them to administer sacraments. (Buck’s Th. Dic., Methodists, iv, New Connection) After these had built up societies at home and in foreign countries, he ordained some kind of anomalous superiours for foreign countries, among them Thomas Coke for America.
23. Coke claimed, by virtue of this ordination, under the hands of Wesley, who was only a Deacon, that he was Bishop, and the Methodist Church so acknowledged him. (Discipline, ch. i, sec. 1.) And from this source alone is derived the Episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
24. Wesley disclaims having ordained Bishops. If his disclaimer is true, Coke was a miserable impostor, and the act of the Conference acknowledging the validity of his Episcopal ordination, a swindle. If, on the other hand, Wesley’s disclaimer was hypocritical, and he did really ordain Coke Bishop, he became just such a Bishop as any other Deacon of that Church can make over any other Church.
25. Perhaps no more singular feature is developed in this matter, than the fact that the founder of the Methodists lived and died an Episcopalian; and as an Episcopalian, but without any authority from that Church, conferred the Meth-
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odist Priesthood on all the first preachers of that faith.
26. The condition of the Baptists, is in this respect, no better; for though they sometimes deny being Protestants, and claim a separate derivation from theirs, approaching the Apostolick ages, there is not the slightest evidence on which to justify such claims. In different ages there have been transitory schisms, in the mountain regions of Europe, from the Roman Catholick Church. But these different schisms did not derive their Priesthood from each other in succession, but each in its time, commenced with schismatick Romanist Priests. And they were not Baptist Churches, but schismaticks, who separated from Rome, some on one question, and some on another; but all agreeing with her in the main.
27. The real derivation of the Baptists of America, is from Roger Williams, who had only an Episcopalian ordination, and a lay baptism. The attempt to patch up this bald beginning by sending to England a few members of the Providence Church, to be baptized and return and baptize others, only carries the difficulty back a few generations earlier, to the time when the English Baptists had a similar beginning.
28. So unfounded are all pretences of an Apostolick succession in Protestant Churches, that many learned Protestants have fairly acknowledged that they had no Divinely instituted Priesthood, and undertaken to justify building up Churches without it; satisfied either with a Priesthood instituted by themselves, or, with none at all.
29. Paul prophesied of them, when he said, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2d Tim. iv, 3, 4.)
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30. Such a Priesthood could not possess the gifts which are received by prophecy, and the laying on of hands of the Priesthood. (1st Tim. iv, 14. 2d Tim. i, 6.) They would hold office in defiance of the rule that “no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Heb. v, 4.) John, and Charles Wesley, seem to have had some idea that a religious society like the Methodists, with such a man made Priesthood, was something less than the Church of God; for they describe it as “no other than a company of men, having the form, and seeking the power of godliness.” (Bucks Th. Dic., Methodists, iii, Government and Discipline.)
31. That a Priesthood, so made is no Priesthood, all Churches do practically confess. For they will not allow the laity to ordain Clergymen; nor the inferiour Clergy to ordain the superiour; nor a Clergyman of another sect, to ordain a Clergyman for them.
32. Equally do they all practically confess that a Priesthood is necessary in the Church, for each in some way have contrived to elevate men to that calling, and to devolve upon them certain prerogatives, which the laity are not allowed to exercise. Certain sacraments and ordinances they practise as a part of their religion, which they do not allow to be valid, unless administered by a Priest. By these means they practically say, that the foundation on which they have built is not sound.
33. But with all the pains these Churches have taken to put on the form of godliness, though without the power, (2d Tim. iii, 5,) they have missed of the form also. God has set in the Church Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers, (1st Cor. xii, 28. Eph. iv, 11,) and declared these several Orders and Degrees necessary for the work of the
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Ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and for the perfecting of the Saints; until they all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto perfect men, of the same measure and fulness as Christ. (id. 12, 13.)
34. Now, among all the Christian Churches, there is none which has this form; and as this is the only godly form, none has so much as the form of godliness in the matter of their Priesthood. Not one pretends to have in the Church, Apostles, Prophets and Evangelists.
35. Roman Catholicks have, first, the Pope, then Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and Priests, and some inferiour orders, who merely assist the Priests in sacraments and ceremonies.
36. The Greek, and most of the Eastern Churches, have the same order, except that with some the Patriarch and with some the Bishop is the highest.
37. Episcopalians have the same order, beginning with Archbishops, and in the United States with Bishops; and with this the Episcopal Methodists substantially agree; their Bishops answering to the Archbishops, and the Presiding Elders to the Bishops of the Episcopacy; but with this difference, that among Methodists no one is settled as Pastor of any congregation, but with a joint pastorate, they are distributed around from time to time.
38. Among other Churches nothing is seen that makes any approach to the Priesthood of the Christian Church, in its various grades, offices and authorities. In numerous Churches, under pretence of Christian liberty, a republican system of Priesthood and government has been instituted, where all men hold their power, not by the voice of God, but by the suffrages of the laity.
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39. Others, like Baptists and Congregationalists, with, perhaps, but one Order or Degree in the Priesthood, have a merely Democratick form of government; where he who should be a Teacher sent from God is made Pastor by the single act of the congregation over which he presides, and may be cast out of the Priesthood by them; as though the sheep could choose and judge the Shepherd, instead of being chosen and judged by him.
40. Apostles and Prophets looked for and prophesied of this falling away. Daniel, in his vision of the horn which had eyes and a mouth, (Dan. vii, 20,) shows that he shall wear out the Saints of the Most High, and think to change times and Laws, and they shall be given into his hand; but, that, afterward, the judgment shall sit, and take away his dominion. (id. 25, 26.) To the same import Paul wrote to the Church at Thessalonica, warning them of so great a falling away, that the Man of Sin should exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. (2d Thess. ii, 3, 4.)
41. John the Revelator prophesied the loss of the Priesthood, and the apostacy of the Church, by some of those magnificently eloquent symbols so often used to inform the faithful, without imparting knowledge to unbelievers.
42. The Church is represented as a woman, clothed with the sun, the fountain of natural light; because the Church is clothed in the light of God’s revealed word; and having the moon under her feet, because not guided by reflected light, or mere human wisdom. In respect to the Apostolick missions, the chief means of establishing and extending her dominion, she is represented with a crown of twelve stars. (Rev. xii, 1.)
43. This woman is about to be delivered of a child, who shall rule the nations; a power which pertains to the highest
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order of Priesthood; and a great red dragon stands ready to devour this child as soon as it is born; but the child was caught up to heaven, and thus preserved; that is, in plain, unsymbolical language, that Priesthood which shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, or an iron sceptre, was removed from earth, and taken up to God. (Rev. xii, 2, 3, 5.)
44. The woman flees from the dragon into the wilderness, where, instead of being nourished from the presence of the Redeemer, with the waters of life, as she ought, being his wife, she is nourished from the face of the serpent, (Rev. xii, 14,) while the dragon went to make war with the rest of the children born of the woman; that is, the rest of the Priesthood, which God had raised up in the Church. (id. 17.)
45. In this persecution, the Saints were quite overcome, and all power over all kindreds, tongues and nations, passed into the hands of a ruler, represented as a terrible beast, which had already received the power of the dragon, and all who have not already had their names written in the Book of Life, go after and worship this beast; so that under his reign, no more become Saints; no new Priests could be raised up to fill the places of the dying, and a single generation made an end of the true Priesthood. (Rev. xiii, 7.)
46. It is difficult to read these symbolical prophesies, without seeing that the Pagan Roman Empire was the dragon; that the Emperour Constantine was the serpent which nourished the woman, and, therefore, substantially the serpent and dragon were the same power; and, that the beast was Papal Rome, the same thing, with a changed form, and a new name; Papal having grown out of, and received its power from Pagan Rome.
47. It is curious, therefore, that the next which is seen of this woman, she is mounted on a scarlet coloured beast, (cor-
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responding with the dragon in colour,) full of names of blasphemy; no longer clothed with the sun, or the light of God’s word, but with purple, and scarlet, and gold, and precious stones, and pearls, which Constantine and his successors bestowed on her, when he nourished her with the spoils of Heathen Temples, and the riches of his Empire. (Rev. xvii, 3, 4.)
48. She now, in this new character, carries a cup full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication, and has the name written upon her forehead, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.” (Rev. xvii, 4, 5.) She is now called a whore, (id. 1,) because, having been (in the symbolical sense) the married wife of Christ, this woman (now destitute of all Priesthood or authority from God) has given herself to the embraces of Gentile Kings, and receives her support from the countenance of ungodly and usurping Emperours.
49. This being the Protestant view of this prophecy so far, how blind are they, not to see that, having sprung from her, they are the harlots, her daughters; being distinguished from her by the fact that as they were never married to Christ, their prostitution in an unlawful union with the Kings of the earth, makes them, not whores, but harlots. Most aptly do these symbols apply to those Churches which were separated from Rome as a matter of State policy, produced of whoredoms, and incestuously prostituted to the corruptions, vices and tyrannies of the States which produced them.
50. Thus the Priesthood disappeared from the earth, and was reserved by the power of God in heaven, against the day when he should reveal it anew on earth, and commit a new and final dispensation of the Kingdom unto man. And all the religious sects have, in one way and another, become the witnesses that they have no true Priesthood of God.
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NOTE III.—RESTORATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
1. The restoration of the Priesthood, of the gospel, and of the Law of God, in the last days, is the subject of numerous prophecies. All the prophecies of the Kingdom of God, to be established in the last days, involve the idea of instituting a Priesthood, with plenary power to make disciples, to administer all the sacraments necessary to their sanctification and perfection, and to take the dominion and administer justice and judgment. (Dan. ii, 44, 45. vii, 13, 14, 18, 22, 27. Mic. iv, 1, 2. Isa. ii, 2, 3. xlii, 1-4. Jer. xxiii, 5. xxxiii, 15-26. Oba. 21. Matt. vi, 10. Rev. xi, 15. xiv, 6, 7. xviii, 4. xix, 15.)
2. Without going over the mass of these, a single one, by John the Revelator, concerning the restoration of the gospel, will be sufficient: “I saw another Angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying, with a loud voice, ‘fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.’ ” (Rev. xiv, 6, 7.)
3. As John was in this vision shown one of the things which should happen thereafter, (Rev. iv, 1,) the grave question arises, why was an Angel to be sent with the gospel to be preached to men that dwell on the earth? For no reason, but that men on the earth were destitute of the gospel. If there was a knowledge of the gospel, and a godly ministry to preach its truths, and administer its sacraments on earth, there could be no occasion for sending an Angel with it.
4. And as this Angel was sent with the gospel, to be preached “to every nation, kindred, tongue and people,” it
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follows that every nation, kindred, tongue and people were destitute of it; otherwise the Angel would not have been sent with the gospel, to be preached to them.
5. This text thus stands as a distinct announcement that God would, in the latter days, restore the gospel to the earth, which would then be destitute of it. But the idea has become so prevalent among Protestants that the gospel may have a separate existence without the Priesthood, that it is worthy of passing notice, that simply revealing the doctrine of the gospel would not bring the gospel to men.
6. If a book containing the whole doctrine of the gospel were placed in the possession of a Pagan people, and they should read and believe it, they could not be said to possess the gospel. Neither could they become Saints by that fact alone. For God has appointed a door into his Church, by which only can any one enter, to wit, baptism. So that even Jesus himself could not fulfill all righteousness, except by being baptized. (Matt iii, 15. John iii, 5. x, 1, 3.)
7. Or, to be more explicit, the gospel does not consist in doctrine only, but also in sacraments, and in the power from God to administer those sacraments. Consequently this Angel seen by John, is sent of God to restore to men on earth the doctrine of the gospel, with the knowledge of its sacraments, and the power or Priesthood to administer those sacraments.
8. Let no one imagine for one moment that this Angel is to preach the gospel. Such is not the prophecy. John saw the Angel flying through the midst of heaven, not through the earth or air, but having the gospel to preach to men on earth. The Angel was a Minister of the will and work of God in heaven; not on earth.
9. Nor would it be meet or proper to send an Angel actu-
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ally to preach, but only to commit a dispensation of the gospel to men to preach. Even Christ took not on him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham; made in all things like unto his brethren; that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, (Heb. ii, 16, 17,) because thus he could be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, being in all things tempted and tried as we are. (id. iv, 15.)
10. The office of the Angel is accomplished in committing a dispensation to the chosen of God, and preparing him for the work, by giving him a proper knowledge of the gospel, and the authority to administer in all the appointments of God. And this work was accomplished in the calling of Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdery, and in the Priesthood and revelations committed to them, for the beginning of the ministry.
11. As this proposition is fundamental, it deserves to be treated with more than a passing notice. That they did receive a dispensation of the gospel, does not rest merely on their assertion that they received the Priesthood of life under the hand of John the Baptist, and afterwards the Priesthood of an endless life under the hands of Peter, James, and John, (D. & C. 1, 2, 3,) nor on the testimony of the eleven witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Nor does it rest on any similar testimony, or any testimony which the voice of man can possibly impeach.
12. They instituted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which, alone, of all the Churches on earth, is possessed of the gospel of the Son of God. How should men hear the gospel without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? (Rom. x, 14, 15.) And no man taketh this honour, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron; (Heb. v, 4;) who was selected by the mouth of a
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Prophet. He who is not so called, cannot preach the gospel, because “the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Now, we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1st Cor. ii, 11-14.)
13. As in the Church instituted by them alone, of all the Churches on earth, the doctrine of the gospel as it came from God is preached and believed, the conclusion is inevitable that this alone is the true Church of God. As the Priesthood derived in succession from Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery do understand the things of God and proclaim them according to God’s word, unquestionably they are sent of God. That the gospel preached by this Priesthood, and believed in this Church, is that revealed by Jesus Christ, is made apparent in its proper places throughout this Book of the Law, and the arguments and testimonies need not to be repeated here. That no other Churches give heed to it, their creeds and confessions of faith sufficiently show.
14. God established two Priesthoods in the Church, consisting of divers Orders and Degrees. None of the sects have such, and none pretend to it, because, not being sent of God, they cannot work by his pattern. They are even ignorant of the distinction between the two Priesthoods, and know not whether to claim their Priesthood as one or the other, or something different from either.
15. Jesus Christ, when he sent the Apostles to preach the
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gospel to all the world, gave promise that certain signs should follow those that believed the word preached. (Mark xvi, 15-18.) As all Christendom avow that those signs do not follow the preaching of their gospel, they are self-condemned as not preaching and believing the true gospel. As these signs do follow the preaching of the gospel and the belief of it among those whom Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery sent in the name of God, it is equally satisfactory evidence that they have received a dispensation of the Priesthood from the Angel whom John saw flying through the midst of heaven.
16. The publication of the Book of Mormon is the first epoch in the publick attention to the dispensation of the fulness of times. Aside from literary defects and editorial and mechanical blunders, it is the most extraordinary Book of this productive and progressive age. It traces, for a period of one thousand years, the history of a semicivilized population, extending over half the American continent with such minuteness, that the student in modern geography finds no difficulty in locating their nations and cities, and most of the events in their history.
17. Their cities, temples and structures used in religion and war, form the same prominent feature in their history which such works usually do in the history of a people in a low state of civilization, and in some instances are minutely described. Such a work should have commanded the attention of antiquarians and historians in all the world. Prejudice has shut the eyes of the learned to this vast fund of knowledge.
18. A few years later the American government sent the distinguished traveler and learned savan, John L. Stevens, as Embassador to Central America, accompanied by the artist, Mr. Catherwood, with permission to inquire into and examine
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the antiquities and aboriginal monuments of that country. These learned gentlemen, after a sojourn of less than two years, returned and published, as the result of their labours, a minute account of cities, temples, altars, fortresses, kingly palaces and national monuments, of gorgeous grandeur, scattered in vast and rich profusion over all that sunny region; desolated and without inhabitant over which the ancient forest had grown in gigantick majesty, which the prying curiosity of man had not penetrated for countless ages. These cities, these towers, these temples, these palaces, were the same that the Book of Mormon had before mentioned. The same rivers water them, and the same mountains surround them, which the believing student had read of ten years before, in the writings of the Seer of Palmyra.
19. Even the pictures painted upon the walls of palaces, temples and dwellings, are a faithful illustration of the history contained in the Book of Mormon, and as plainly record the great events there written out, as the pictures and statuary in the Capitol at Washington do the written history of the United States. The correspondence between the monumental and pictorial history, as discovered by Stevens and Catherwood on the one hand, and the written history as translated by Joseph Smith on the other, was perfect.
20. Yet learned men, antiquarians and historians, still close their eyes to its consequence. Concede for once what is claimed by all but the disciples of Joseph Smith, that the Book of Mormon is an imposture, no matter by what means got up, how did its authors discover the secrets of past history, and make their writing correspond with the since discovered monuments? The power to do it is essentially a divine power, quite as much so as that of prophecy.
21. This fact alone, sustained as it is by an overwhelming
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mass of evidence, is enough to vindicate the sacred character of the Book of Mormon, the Apostolick character, and true witness of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and to vindicate the Church by them instituted as the institution of heaven, and the new dispensation as a dispensation of life from the Almighty.
22. If the Book of Mormon was an imposition, it could scarcely fail to contain modern figures, modern forms of speech, allusions to modern facts and modern discoveries in the arts and sciences, and ten thousand other evidences of its modern origin. So certain was this, that the sincere unbelievers in its divine authority made this the ground of their attack upon it, and based their unbelief on the assumption of the existence of such evidences of a modern origin.
23. In searching for such evidence, it was discovered that the Book of Mormon mentions the use of steel several centuries prior to the Christian era, and history was appealed to, to show that the manufacture of steel was a modern art, invented since the Roman Republick. Against this it appears from the Bible that steel was used in the time of King David. (2d Sam. xxii, 35. Ps. xviii, 34.)
24. It is now a well known fact, that the art of making steel of an excellent quality is one of the ancient arts of the Hindoos, practiced by them from remote and unknown ages, by a process different from that in use among the western nations. Their art and that of the Hebrews are doubtless the same. It is only the European process which is modern. So this argument falls to the ground.
25. An imperfect compass was in use among the nations whose history is written in the Book of Mormon. Such is now proved to have been in use among the Chinese, from the earliest antiquity. The Book of Mormon shows the exist-
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ence of herds of horses and cattle in America in early periods, whereas the present stocks are supposed to have all orig-inated with the European stocks brought over since the time of Columbus.
26. The lama and the buffalo are beasts of burden and draft, which might with propriety be called by those names. The buffalo is as truly an ox as the European bos. And the evidence that the wild horses all sprang from European stocks is anything but satisfactory. Though it is certain that the Mexicans of the time of Cortez, did not use horses, the Mexicans of this time insist that certain breeds of horses now running wild, are of American origin, and were not introduced by Europeans. Their great unlikeness to horses of western Europe, justifies the Mexican opinion.
27. Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, has proved, in a very interesting work, published by the Smithsonian Institution, that there existed in America in ancient times two species of ox of great size and value, which have disappeared so recently that several specimen of their bones and horn cores are in existence. These were the oxen spoken of in the Book of Mormon, and have become extinct for want of attention. Domesticated for ages, they perished when they lost all attention from man, not being adapted to a wild state in this climate. Thus answers the unbeliever to this cavil.
28. The call of a successor to the Prophet Joseph in exact fulfillment of prophecy, and the continuation of the work of the dispensation in the very order in which he had begun it, though the largest share of the disciples of Joseph went off on another plan, is not one of the least evidences that it was God’s work. And the revelation to the Prophet James, by the divine word of the plates at Voree, is probably the best proved, to this generation, of any miracle since the
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world began.* No man, either Apostate, Christian, or Infidel, has ever attempted to answer the evidence of it, though it was a subject of rather general notice in the newspapers at the time, and has been before the publick for more than ten years.
29. Indeed, in more than a quarter of a century, which has elapsed since the restoration of the Priesthood, and the opening of the dispensation, no attempt has been made to meet and answer the evidence that it was of divine authority. Nu-
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*REVELATION.—The Angel of the Lord came unto me, James, on the first day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and fortyfive, and the light shined about him above the brightness of the sun, and he showed unto me the plates of the sealed record, and he gave into my hands the Urim and Thummim. And out of the light came the voice of the Lord, saying, My servant James, in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee, because I have tried thee, and found thee faithful. Behold, my servant James, I am about to bless thee with a great blessing, which shall be to those who love me, an immutable testimony; to those who know me not, a stumbling block; but to those who have known me, and have turned their hearts from me, a rock of offence.
Go to the place which the Angel of the presence shall show thee, and there shalt thou dig for the record of my people, in whose possession thou dwellest. Take with thee faithful witnesses; for in evil will the unfaithful speak of thee; but the faithful and true shall know that they are liars, and shall not stumble for their words.
And while I was yet in the spirit, the Angel of the Lord took me away to the hill in the east of Walworth, against White River, in Voree, and there he shewed unto me the record buried under an oak tree as large as the body of a large man; it was enclosed in an earthen casement, and buried in the ground as deep as to a man’s waist, and I behold it as a man can see a light stone in clear water; for I saw it by Urim and Thummim.
TESTIMONY.—On the thirteenth day of September, 1845, we, Aaron Smith, Jirah B. Wheelan, James M. Van Nostrand, and Edward Whitcomb, assembled at the call of James J. Strang, who is by us and many others approved as a Prophet and Seer of God. He proceeded to inform us that it had been revealed to him in a vision that an account of an ancient people was buried in a hill south of White River bridge, near the east line of Walworth County; and leading us to an oak tree, about one foot in diameter, told us that we would find it enclosed in a case of rude earthen ware under that tree, at the depth of about three feet; requested us to dig it up, and charged us to go examine the ground that we should know we were not imposed upon, and that it had not been buried there since the tree grew. The tree was surrounded by a sward of deeply rooted grass, such as is usually found in the openings; and upon the most critical examination, we could not discov er any indication that it had ever been cut through or disturbed.
We then dug up the tree, and continued to dig to the depth of about three feet, where we found a case of slightly baked clay, containing three plates of brass. (Continued on next page)
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merous false tales have been put afloat, for the purpose of bringing the institution and the Priesthood into disrepute; none to meet the question of its divine authority on the merits.
NOTE IV.—OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
1. Among the works published against the Priesthood of Joseph Smith, and his associates, and their successors, and the authority of the Book of Mormon as one of the Sacred Records, the leading work, from which all others are more or less derived, is E. D. Howe’s “History of Mormonism.” This work first appeared in 1834, under the title of “Mormonism Unveiled.”
2. Of this book thirtyseven pages are made up of the certificates and affidavits of nearly one hundred persons, to prove that Joseph and his associates were vagrants, moneydiggers, and superstitious, ignorant and vicious persons, and
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The case was found imbedded in indurated clay, so closely fitting it that it broke in taking out; and the earth below the soil was so hard as to be dug with difficulty, even with a pickaxe. Over the case was found a flat stone, about one foot wide each way, and three inches thick, which appeared to have undergone the action of fire, and fell in pieces after a few minutes exposure to the air. The digging extended in the clay about eighteen inches, there being two kinds of earth of different colour and appearance above it.
We examined as we dug all the way with the utmost care, and we say, with the utmost confidence, that no part of the earth through which we dug exhibited any sign or indication that it had been moved or disturbed at any time previous. The roots of the tree struck down on every side very closely, extending below the case, and closely interwoven with roots from other trees. None of them had been broken or cut away. No clay is found in the country like that of which the case is made,
In fine, we found an alphabetick and pictorial record, carefully cased up, buried deep in the earth, covered with a flat stone, with an oak tree one foot in diameter, growing over it, with every evidence that the senses can give that it has lain there as long as that tree has been growing. Strang took no part in the digging, but kept entirely away, from before the first blow was struck till after the plates were taken out of the case; and the sole inducement to our digging was our faith in his statement as a Prophet of the Lord, that a record would thus and there be found.
AARON SMITH, JIRA B. WHEELAN,
J. M. VAN NOSTRAND, EDWARD WHITCOMB.
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that they got up the Book of Mormon as a speculation.
3. First, among these is an affidavit of Peter Ingersoll, dated Palmyra, Wayne County, N. Y., Dec. 2d, 1833, certified by Thomas P. Baldwin, Judge of Wayne County Court, to have been sworn before him, “according to law,” the 9th day of Dec., 1833. A few pages subsequent, are the certificates of six witnesses that Ingersoll is worthy of credit; a rather suspicious circumstance, considering that his veracity had not been questioned.
4. This same Peter Ingersoll is now a resident of Lapeer County, Michigan, and solemnly denies that he ever signed or made oath to the affidavit, or any other affidavit on the subject. As Thomas P. Baldwin certifies that Ingersoll did make oath to the statement, according to law, whereas, in fact, the law did not authorize him to administer any such oath, or any extrajudicial oath whatever, his certificate is, to say the least, not to be received against Ingersoll’s solemn statement that he never swore to the affidavit. The certificate is certainly false in one point; for as there is no law for administering such an oath, it could not have been done according to law.
5. But as the name of Ingersoll is certainly forged, that of Judge Baldwin probably is. The title of his office is erroneously written to his signature, a mistake he would not be likely to make himself, though E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, might; not being acquainted with New York jurisprudence. In 1833 there was not in the State of New York such an office as Judge of the County Court. Circuit Courts, Oyer and Terminer, Common Pleas and General Sessions were held for every county, but there was no “County Court.” Every official act requiring the signature of a Judge, was signed by him as Judge of some one of these particular
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Courts; not as Judge of some imaginary Court, having no existence.
6. Upon an examination of all these certificates, it will be perceived that not one of them is authenticated in legal form; some are not signed at all; they are often contradictory one to another, and much of them is on hearsay. Not one is certified under the seal of any Court. When it is considered that religious animosities are the bitterest of all human hatred, and that these were got up on the ground where Joseph commenced his ministry, among those most bitterly opposed to him, if the certificates were really genuine, the wonder would not be that though a righteous man so much was said against him, but so little.
7. Bunyan, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Whitfield, if so judged, on the exclusive testimony of their enemies, would come off worse, and Jesus and his Apostles far worse. But at this time, while most of the witnesses, whose testimony is recorded against him, are yet living, scattered through half the States, and able to answer for themselves, the Saints know and continually assert that most of these certificates are forgeries, never sworn, signed or seen by those whose names are signed to them; and they perpetually challenge the world to the investigation, assured that the cause which must be supported by forgery is rotten.
8. No one need start up in surprise and say, men would not dare publish forged certificates and affidavits. It is not a crime, by the law of any State in the Union. The affidavits, being extrajudicial, and of no legal force, the laws will not take cognizance of the forgery, if they are forged, nor of the perjury, if they are false. But E. D. Howe, the author of the book, is an Ohio lawyer, and in getting up the book attempted to give these evidences a legal form, and he has
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made such certificates over the names of Justices and a Judge, as those officers would not use in the State of New York, unless ignorant of their own official designations.
9. Moreover, though the object of these certificates is to impeach the credibility of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and the character of the Prophet himself they are anything but unanimous, and prove little against them but being superstitious. On this the accusers have no advantage of the accused; for Stafford, one of the witnesses, certifies that he furnished them a sheep to sacrifice to an evil spirit to appease his wrath, so that he would not spirit away hidden treasures they were digging for, and was to have a share of the enchanted treasures when found.
10. Not one word of this mass of testimony is worthy one moments credit, both because it is unquestionably forged, because, if genuine, it is too ignorant to be worthy of notice, and because often contradictory. It has received attention from those only whose minds were made up, and on the assumption that ignorance, superstition, and falsehood, was sufficient to refute what they had already condemned as ignorance, superstition, and falsehood.
11. The leading purpose of these testimonies was to overthrow the evidence that the Prophet Joseph possessed the plates, from which he professed to have translated the Book of Mormon. They have never been reviewed by his followers; yet our enemies, being the judges, they fail of their purpose; for it is now admitted, even by Mr. Ferris, late Secretary of Utah, the ablest writer against the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph, that he did “exhume one or more of those curious glyphs, which now figure so largely in the list of American antiquities,” consisting “of metallick plates, covered with hieroglyphical characters,”—“written from top to
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bottom, like the Chinese, or from side to side indifferently like the Egyptian and Demotick Lybian.” (Utah and the Mormons, p. 54.) And Thomas Ford, late Governour of Illinois, though he does not admit the actual existence of the plates, allows as a probable theory that the witnesses of the Book of Mormon thought they saw them; and, consequently are not false and corrupt, but superstitious and deceived witnesses. (Ford’s History of Illinois, p. 257.)
12. But the grand assault on the Prophetick character of Joseph Smith, is, that known as the Spaulding story. This is to the effect that the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, of Conneaut, Ohio, in 1810, wrote a book entitled, “Manuscript Found,” giving a fictitious account of the emigration of some Jews to America, and their wars, settlements and national affairs, so as to account for the tumuli and other antiquities about Conneaut; which manuscript afterwards fell into the hands of Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, and was by them reconstructed into the Book of Mormon.
13. The evidence offered to prove this, is, the certificates of seven witnesses, made in 1833, that they read and heard read the Spaulding manuscript, in 1810 and 1811, and that, on the introduction of the Book of Mormon there, subsequent to 1830, when it was first publshed, they recognized it as the “Manuscript Found,” of Solomon Spaulding, with which they had been acquainted twentytwo years before.
14. The inference from these facts is, that the Book of Mormon, instead of being translated from plates, was copied from the Spaulding manuscript. Now, Conneaut is less than fifty miles from Kirtland, the gathering place to which the Saints began assembling in 1831. If the Book of Mormon was such an imposture, could the authors of the imposture, men who at least had the talent to succeed, have been guilty of
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the folly of gathering their disciples so near the scene of their imposture? It is incredible. A blunderer would have got out of the way of so certain exposure. Men who make such blunders, are never successful impostors. The leaders had no need to go to Kirtland, before all the great west, that they should thus set down at the very gate of exposure and inevitable ruin.
15. So great is the improbability that an impostor would do any such thing, that it could only be believed on the most overwhelming evidence. No motive can be imagined sufficient to induce any one to plagiarize a book, palm it off as an inspiration, build up a Church upon the imposture, and then transplant that Church bodily several hundred miles, and locate it only one day’s travel, on one of the greatest, thoroughfares of the continent, from where the imposture was as certain of detection as the sun to rise. Nor could this going to Kirtland possibly be attributed to accident, or necessity. Smith and Rigdon pressed it on their followers.
16. The testimony of the witnesses ought to be read and judged, with a view to this exceeding improbability; and the genuineness of their certificates ought to be looked after with the suspicion engendered by the examination of the former set, accumulated by the same author.
17. Solomon Spaulding was educated at Plainfield Academy and Dartmouth College, and had studied Law and Divinity, and preached several years. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 279.) His style must have been good. From his enterprise, his tastes and habits, and especially his fondness for reading and writing, it was probably highly cultivated. The style of the Book of Mormon is exceedingly barbarous, probably more ungrammatical, and worse English, than any other book in the language which ever went through a second edi-
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tion, carrying upon the face of almost every page those peculiar Yankeeisms which a man of education never speaks, much less writes; and proves that whoever rendered it in English, whether author or translator, was very ignorant of the lang-uage. It may be said not to be translated, strictly, into English, but into a barbarous Yankee tongue, familiar to the uneducated of the last generation, but now nearly forgotten.
18. Yet these very marks of great ignorance of the English language, in either author or translator, are the marks by which the witnesses pretend to identify the work. Henry Lake certifies to telling Spaulding that the frequent use of the words, “and it came to pass,” sounded ridiculous. Unquestionably it does; and for that reason Solomon Spaulding could not have so written. He could not have written in that style, to imitate the Bible, as some have said; for that language occurs many times as often as in the Bible, and could only have originated in a very barbarous language, having an exceedingly limited vocabulary.
19. The witnesses also remember that the names of Nephi, Lehi, and others found in the Book of Mormon, occurred frequently in the Spaulding manuscript. Twentytwo years, the time elapsing between hearing the Spaulding manuscript read, and reading the Book of Mormon, is a long time to remember the mere fictitious names, interwoven in a romance, and the place where they are interwoven in dreams of fancy. The names might be remembered, without being in Spaulding’s manuscript; for they originated some thousand years earlier, (Jud. xv, 9, 14. 1st Chron. v, 19. 2d Mac. i, 39,) and were in familiar use in the days of Samson and Nehemiah, though few readers of these names now remember where they have read them.
20. One of the witnesses, Henry Lake, tells of an inconsist-
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ency in the tragick account of Laban, contained in Spaulding’s manuscript, and also in the Book of Mormon, which he pointed out to Spaulding, and he promised to correct; (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 282;) certainly a very strong circumstance, except for the material fact that the inconsistency is not pointed out, and does not exist.
21. Another witness, John N. Miller, whose memory is so tenacious as to recognize “many passages in the Book of Mormon as verbatim from Spaulding, and others in fact,” and to “find in it the writings of Solomon Spaulding from beginning to end,” recognized it by “some humorous passages,” which Spaulding frequently read to company. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 283.) As there is not a humorous passage in the Book of Mormon, his testimony, if, indeed, he ever gave it, will go for nothing.
22. Another witness, Oliver Smith, remembers that Spaulding’s manuscript gave an account of the arts, sciences, and civilization of the first settlers of America. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 235.) But the Book of Mormon contains none of these things. There is not only no history of these things in the Book of Mormon, but they are so slightly alluded to in any way, that it is impossible to know what arts and sciences existed among the people whose history is there recorded; and the opinion prevails that they were in a state of semibarbarism, because their history consists of little but emigrations, settlements, religion and wars.
23. They generally agree that the religious part of the Book of Mormon is not Spaulding’s, and that his object was to account for the antiquities found so abundantly about Conneaut, by writing a romance which should be a plausible history of their origin. Now the Book of Mormon does not in any way account for the origin of those works. It does
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not place one of its scenes in that region, nor give account of the construction of any similar structures, nor does it appear by it that any person mentioned in the Book of Mormon ever saw or heard of the great Lakes of North America, or ever approached the Lake region, or the region of its peculiar class of antiquities, except as a fugitive, near the closing scenes of the book. And if the religious part of the book was taken out, most of it would be lacking, including every leading fact in the history of all those men whose names these veracious witnesses so well remember.
24. Had testimony like this been given in open Court, upon a regular examination and cross examination of witnesses no judicious mind would have deemed the case made out. But when it was picked up by a lawyer, in exparte examinations of witnesses opposed with religious zeal to the cause he is attacking, it amounts to nothing at all. The plan once set on foot, it is a matter of surprise that so bald a case is made out.
25. Unable to get certificates signed to his own satisfaction, Howe has added an unsigned certificate of one witness, Artemas Cunningham, (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 286,) and numerous unsupported statements of his own, of what various other persons said and would have said if he could have found them, and asks the world on such exparte unsworn, unsupported, contradictory, incredible and impertinent testimony and hearsay to believe the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from Spauldings romance. Against the credibility of any part of the testimony that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from the “Manuscript Found,” is the overwhelming fact that, in 1832, Orson Hyde introduced the Book of Mormon at Conneaut, (New Salem, Ohio,) and there preached and built up a numerous Church among Spaulding’s
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old neighbours, many of whom were familiar with his “Manuscript Found.” They could not be deceived, and could have no possible inducement to establish themselves and their children and friends in a delusion.
26. But there was still another difficulty to encounter; that is, to show by what possibility Joseph Smith could have become possessed of Spaulding’s manuscript. If it was unquestionably shown that he held it, it would be a question of no consequence how he came by it. But while the testimony that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized, was defective, it was at least necessary to show that Spaulding’s manuscript might by possibility have fallen into Smith’s hands.
27. So important did Howe deem this portion of his undertaking, that he traced up the family of Spaulding from Conneaut, through Pittsburgh and Amity, in Pennsylvania, Onondaga and Otsego counties, in New York, and from there to the State of Massachusetts, where he found Spaulding’s widow, and learned that she had left a trunk of Spaulding’s manuscripts in Otsego county, New York. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 287, 288.)
28. The light began to break. Here was a chance to prove the imposture by bringing forward the very book, written by Spaulding in 1811, which Joseph was pretending to translate in 1829. The trunk was opened, and in it was found “a romance, purporting to have been translated from the Latin, found on twentyfour rolls of parchment in a cave, on the banks of Conneaut Creek.” (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 288)
29. What further was done, Howe does not see fit to tell. He says, that this was the wrong manuscript; suggests that Spaulding had altered the plan of his book, thrown this by and written it over again, and that it was the rewritten man-
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uscript which Smith had plagiarized; says he showed this manuscript to several witnesses, who had already certified to the identity of the Book of Mormon, with the Spaulding manuscript, who excused themselves of a lie by saying, that Spaulding “told them he had altered his plan of writing.” (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 288.) That such an alteration was actually made, is possible; for though Howe omits all mention of it, the testimony of the widow (then Matilda Davison) and daughter of Spaulding (Mrs. McKinstry) published in the Quincy Whig, shows clearly that the genuine duly entitled “Manuscript Found” was delivered personally to Hulburt, Howe’s agent, in 1834, at Monson, Massachusetts.
30. Failing thus to identify the works, he returns to the important task of showing that by possibility Smith could have possessed himself of the “Manuscript Found.” And on this point he asserts this, no more: that the widow thinks the manuscript was once taken to the printing office of Patterson and Lambdin, at Pittsburgh; (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 287;) that Lambdin is dead, and, therefore, cannot testify, and Patterson does not know anything whatever on the subject. (id., p. 289.)
31. This is absolutely all that he pretends to have made out. Here starts conjecture; that as Rigdon came to Pittsburgh, in 1823 or 1824; is said to have been intimate with Lambdin, studied the Bible, went into the Western Reserve, Ohio, and commenced preaching there the Campbellite doctrine, then new, and contained in the Book of Mormon, as well as the Bible, about the same time that the veracious Palmyra witnesses have Smith engaged in money digging, tavern lounging, and vagrancy, Lambdin must have surreptitiously copied Spaulding’s manuscript; Rigdon must have
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stolen Lambdin’s copy; rewrote it to suit his purpose; and, in some of his long clerical visits to Pittsburgh, struck off three hundred and fifty miles, through the wild byways of the Alleghany mountains and the Susquehannah River, to where the boy vagrant Joe was digging money, and employed him to found a new religion. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 289, 290.)
32. This is the whole case, as made out by Howe, in his Mormonism Unveiled, in 1834. This work, under the title of History of Mormonism, has gone through numerous editions since; but all end here. Time has not added one word. The friend and assistant of Howe, Philastus Hulburt, spent a full year in tracing up the Spaulding manuscript, and accumulating testimonies, guesses and forgeries, of which the latter make the largest share. What does it make out? Unanswered, is there enough of it to raise a suspicion? If suspicion was already awakened, is there anything to confirm it? Does not the meagerness of the case, and the suspicious character of the testimonies, damn the accusers?
33. Though this tale was swallowed by those who were ready to believe anything against the Prophet, either with or without evidence, there were those who saw the necessity of obtaining something in the shape of testimony. Resort was had to Mrs. Davison, late widow of the late Solomon Spaulding, to see if in her waning years her memory had not brightened.
34. Austin, of Monson, and Storrs, of Hollister, Massachusetts, visited the widow of Spaulding, and after obtaining what information they could, drew up a letter, to which Austin signed her name, agreeing in some minor features with Howe’s History, but stating that Spaulding did exhibit “his manuscript to Patterson, who was much pleased with it, and
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borrowed it for perusal,” and after retaining “it a long time, informed Mr. Spaulding, that, if he would make out a title page and preface, he would publish it;” and also that the manuscript was carefully preserved by her till Hulburt (Howe’s agent) called upon her for it, in Monson, Massachusetts in 1834; contrary to Howe, who makes her say she “has no distinct knowledge of its contents,” “and is quite uncertain whether it was ever brought back from Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office.” (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 287, 288.)
35. This letter alleges that “Sidney Rigdon was at that time (which she makes some time previous to 1815) connected with the printing office of Patterson and Lambdin;” and that the manuscript was returned to Mr. Spaulding, when he removed to Washington county, where he died, in 1816, and that she took it with her, and it has been frequently read by her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, of Monson, Massachusetts, and other friends, till 1834, when Philastus Hulburt (Howe’s assistant) came, introduced by her old neighbours, Henry Lake, Aaron Wright, and others, to get it for the purpose of comparison with the Book of Mormon. This letter was published in the Episcopal Recorder, of Sept. 12, 1840, the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, of Nov. 16, 1842, and the newspapers generally.
36. This so far contradicted Roves version, in the attempt to make a stronger case, that numerous persons called on the widow and daughter of Spaulding, in Monson, to make personal inquiries. Among them, Mr. John Haven, of Hollister, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, published in the Quincy Whig, a letter stating that the widow says she never signed the letter published over her name, and never saw it till after its publication, and had no agency in the origin of
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it, except answering some questions asked by D. R. Austin, who afterwards wrote the letter, without her authority.
37. But she states the important fact, that she delivered the original manuscript to Philastus Hulburt, the associate of Howe, on an agreement of his to publish it, and give her half the profits; and that she “subsequently received a letter, stating that it did not read as they expected, and they should not publish it.”
38. In Howe’s History of Mormonism, the fact that the real Spaulding manuscript was in the author’s hands, was covered by a very thin veil. It is difficult to read the published letter in the name of Spaulding’s widow without perceiving that fact, though it is not positively stated. But here it comes out clear and distinct.
39. Howe, when he published the History of the Mormons, had the Spaulding manuscript entire and unmutilated before him. He had employed an agent to travel more than one thousand miles, in tracing it up; got possession of it, and compared it line by line with the Book of Mormon. Had there been one page which agreed, he would have copied it in his “Mormonism Unveiled,” as the unanswerable evidence that Joseph Smith was an impostor, and the Book of Mormon a plagiarism. “It did not read as they expected.” The Conneaut witnesses were dishonest, or mistaken. This is the bitter end of the Spaulding story.
40. But it may not be amiss to set down some additional facts, showing that the whole body of those who had a hand in making and propagating it, were willing to resort to falsehood. In the letter extensively published over the name of Spaulding’s widow, she is made to say, “Sidney Rigdon, (one of the founders of the sect,) who has figured so largely in the History of the Mormons, was, at that time, 1812, ’13 and ’14,
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connected with the printing office of Mr. Patterson, as is well known in that region.”
41. Now, Spaulding went to Pittsburgh in 1812, and remained but two years. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 282, 287.) And Rigdon did not go to Pittsburgh till 1823 or 1824. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 289.) So that at least nine years before Rigdon ever visited Pittsburgh, the manuscript was returned to Spaulding; for the widow, in the same letter, certifies that “the manuscript was returned to the author, who soon after removed to Amity, Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1816. The manuscript then fell into her “hands, and was preserved carefully. It has frequently been examined by” her “daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, of Monson, Massachusetts, and by other friends.”
42. Moreover, if Rigdon had been connected with Patter-son’s printing office, that fact could have been proved by Patterson himself. And it was a very important fact for Howe, in making his case. Howe did apply to Patterson for information, and learned that Rigdon arrived at Pittsburgh in 1823 or 1824, but did not learn that he was ever in the printing office for one moment. And it otherwise appears that the firm was dissolved, and the business closed long before that time. The only inference is, that, in endeavoring to supply a known vacuum in the evidence, Austin and Storrs set down this falsehood in the letter, to which they set her name, without any authority whatever.
43. To set this question fully at rest, John E. Page, while in Apostolick charge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Pittsburgh, in 1843, published a book on this Spaulding story, in which he furnishes numerous affidavits, certificates and testimonials that Rigdon was but fifteen years old when Spaulding went to Pittsburgh, and but seven-
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teen when he left there, and was all that time at work on his father’s farm, and that he remained there employed only at farm labour till 1819, five years after Spaulding left Pittsburgh, and three after his death; and that the Spaulding manuscript was in the continual keeping of Spaulding, Mrs. Spaulding and their daughter, from when it left Patterson’s office, in 1812, 1813, or 1814, when Rigdon was a farm boy in the back country, of fifteen to seventeen years, till 1834, when it was put into the hands of Hulburt, the agent of Howe, to be published as an expose of the plagiarism of the Book of Mormon.
44. This work of Page’s, issued on the very scene of action, all its statements supported by the testimony of witnesses then living at and in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, distributed by thousands, and challenging investigation, no man ever attempted to answer. Not a position or an assertion in it was ever attacked. Not a man can be found on earth who, after reading it, pretended to believe the Spaulding story. Not a man can be found in Pittsburgh who pretends that Rigdon was ever in Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office, or ever saw Lambdin.
45. Not only is there this entire failure to trace the Spaulding manuscript to Rigdon, but there has never been the first step made towards tracing it from Rigdon to Smith. In the investigation which so grave a question has called out, both Rigdon and Smith have been traced, step by step, from their cradles till after the publication of the Book of Mormon; and not an iota of evidence has been produced that they were ever within three hundred miles of each other; or that either of them had any kind of fame or notoriety by which the other could by possibility have heard of his existence, until after Joseph translated the Book of Mormon.
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46. While the matter was yet fresh in the publick mind, Rigdon, through the newspapers, denied having ever seen or heard of Spaulding, or his manuscript; denied having any connection with, or knowledge of, Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office, or any acquaintance with Lambdin; and challenged investigation at Pittsburgh, where plenty of witnesses could be found to contradict him, if his statements were not true.
47. Patterson remained there, an influential citizen, and a respectable member of a Christian Church. In 1842, Rev. S. Williams, of Pittsburgh, undertook the task of supplying the lacking evidence, and published a work called, “Mormonism Exposed,” in which he failed to produce a single witness that Rigdon had any connection with the printing office, or Lambdin.
48. Though eight years before, when “Howe’s History of Mormonism” was published, Patterson had no recollection of any such manuscript, (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 289,) he now certifies that some gentleman from the east did bring there a singular manuscript, chiefly in the style of the Old English Bible, of which he read a few pages. But unfortunately for our accusers, he certifies that the manuscript was committed, not to Lambdin, but to Silas Engles, a man of most excellent character, who had charge of the entire concerns of the office; was a good scholar, and an excellent printer, to whose decision was entrusted even the question of the morality and scholarship of works offered for publication; and that Engles, after a few weeks, returned the manuscript to its author.
49. The sum of the facts, therefore, is this: 1st. The testimony offered to prove that the Book of Mormon has any similarity to Spaulding’s “Manuscript Found,” is of the most
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doubtful character; quite as likely to be forged as genuine; and, if genuine, more likely to be false than true. 2d. The original, unmutilated “Manuscript Found,” was in the hands of E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, in 1834, when he first published his History of Mormonism, and was by him suppressed, because there was no resemblance between it and the Book of Mormon. 3d. There is no evidence that Lambdin ever saw or heard of the Spaulding manuscript. Patterson’s testimony shows it improbable that he saw it; impossible that he copied it. 4th. If Lambdin had it, it is so improbable that Rigdon ever saw or heard of it, as to be next to a certainty that he did not. 5th. If Rigdon had it, it is impossible that he ever transferred it to Joseph Smith, or ever heard of him, until after the translation of the Book of Mormon.
50. Complete as is this failure, every subsequent writer has, for want of any other means of attack, fallen back on this. But it is marvellous, how men in high standing have filled up with their own assertions every defect in the chain of evidence, and lopped off every contradiction and inconsistency; reserving to themselves as much of the lie as had the semblance of truth, and adding what was necessary to perfect the falsehood.
GUNNISON’S HISTORY OF THE MORMONS.
51. Gunnison, in his History of the Mormons, (p. 94,) says, that when the “Manuscript Found” was put in the hands of Lambdin, the printer, “Sidney Rigdon was employed to edit it for the press.” No writer, no witness had ever asserted this; but it was necessary to make out the case, and he volunteered the falsehood, not knowing the fact, that at that time Rigdon was only a farmer’s boy of fifteen, and that it
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was Engles instead of Lambdin who had the manuscript.
52. In the attempt, however, to show that the boy Joe had such a reputation as a money digger, at Palmyra, New York, that Rigdon, at Pittsburgh, four hundred miles away, heard of him, and intrusted to him the scheme of founding a new religion, Gunnison breaks down and admits it incredible. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 94.)
53. Gunnison then asserts, that from 1817, to 1820, the trunk supposed to contain the manuscript was at the house of the widow Spaulding’s “brother, in Onondaga Hollow, [Onondaga county, New York] near the residence of the Smiths; [Palmyra, Wayne county, New York;] Wayne and Onondaga counties being separated by a narrow township of land.” (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 95.)
54. Now, it is a fact that the whole breadth of Cayuga county lies between Onondaga on the east, and Wayne on the west; that Onondaga Hollow is in the east part of Onondaga county, and Palmyra, the residence of the Smiths, in the west part of Wayne, making the residence of Smith some eighty miles from Onondaga Hollow. As Smith was but twelve years old at that time, the inference of Gunnison that he smelled out a manuscript eighty miles off, and stole and laid it by to use in founding a new religion, at some future day, is not very forcible. He would need a revelation, at least, to guide him in finding it.
55. But Gunnison’s premises are fatal in still another point He locates Spaulding’s manuscript at Onondaga Hollow, from 1817 to 1820, (History of the Mormons, p. 95,) during all which time the Smith family, according to Howe, lived at Royalton, Vermont, (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 11,) two hundred and eighty miles from Onondaga Hollow. If Howe’s authority is not good for the residence of the Smiths,
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it is not for the Spaulding story. If it is, Gunnison’s conclusions are worse than worthless.
56. Though Howe’s History of Mormonism, which Gunnison principally followed, almost shows Spaulding’s manuscript in Howe’s hands, the letter of Spaulding’s widow, published in the newspapers generally, from 1839 to 1842, showed that she had it in her possession from her husband’s death till Hulburt, the agent of Howe, came after it, in 1834, and that her daughter, and other friends in Monson, were in the habit of reading it, down till that time, and leaves the reader with the impression that she delivered it to Hulburt, for Howe’s use; and the testimony of both the widow and daughter, published in the Quincy Whig, and extensively republished, most positively asserts that it was so delivered to Hulburt, on an agreement to publish it, and that they received a letter from those having it in charge that they should not publish it, because it did not read as they expected; Gunnison ventures the assertion that, ever since the Book of Mormon appeared, the “Manuscript Found has been the manuscript lost;” and apparently oppressed with his own theory, that Smith at the age of twelve had been inspired with the knowledge of its existence in an old trunk eighty miles away, and stolen it; still guesses that by accident or design it got into Smith’s hands in some way. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 95.)
57. The testimony of both the widow and daughter that the manuscript of Spaulding was only about one quarter as large as the printed Book of Mormon, and, therefore, contained but about one twentieth the reading matter, neither Howe, Gunnison or any other writer has noticed.
58. But Gunnison claims, that, notwithstanding the barbarous style of language in which the Book of Mormon is
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rendered, it is really a work of genius of the highest order. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, pp. 95, 96.) One eighteenth, he says, is copied from the Bible. If the whole of Spaulding’s manuscript was copied into it, it would make but one twentieth, and something like nine tenths would remain the work of Smith. A little singular it is that the unlettered Joe and the learned Solomon Spaulding should have the same masterly and commanding genius, and write in the same barbarous style.
FORD’S HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
59. Governour Ford, in his History of Illinois, jumps over all the difficulties, and without pretending to any information beyond what Howe’s History Contains, makes the sweeping and unsupported assertion that “Rigdon had become possessed of a religious romance, written by a Presbyterian Clergyman, in Ohio, then dead, which suggested the idea of starting a new religion. It was agreed that Joe Smith should be put forward as Prophet; and the two devised the story that golden plates had been found, containing a record inscribed on them in unknown characters, which, when deciphered by the power of inspiration, gave the history of the ten lost tribes of Israel.” (Ford’s History of Illinois, p. 252.)
60. Not a new witness is introduced; not a new fact is ascertained. No attempt is made to trace either Smith or Rigdon one step of the way over the three hundred miles of country between them. No attempt is made to show how Rigdon in Pittsburgh, heard of the boy Joe, whose fame for money digging extended throughout a quarter of the township of Manchester,* in central New York; or how he learned of the preacher Rigdon, who, as a Baptist preacher, was known for
*Manchester, Ontario county, adjoins Palmyra, Wayne county, and was part of the time the place of Smith’s residence.
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near twenty miles out of Pittsburgh, in southwestern Pennsylvania. None of these little particulars trouble the Governour in his attempt to blacken the fame of the Prophet, the easier to vindicate the crime of conniving at his murder.
61. Conjectures, of which he could not possibly know anything, which other men had for twenty years ransacked half the continent to find some evidence of, he simply asserts as though they were unquestionable facts.
62. Like most men who bear false witness, he has made his falsehood patent. The Book of Mormon does not contain “the history of the ten lost tribes,” as he asserts; as any one will see by reading the book; and whoever will assert such a falsehood, when the truth is so easily known, whether from carelessness or corruption, is not a safe historian, on disputed questions, of which he has no personal knowledge.
ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE MORMONS.
63. The anonymous author of the Illustrated History of the Mormons, though more just than most writers on that side, falls into the common and unsupported falsehood, by saying that Rigdon was a “compositor;” that is, a type setter, (p. 45) but without one word of evidence to justify the assertion.
64. The same author falls in with the general fame of the Spaulding story, without investigating it, and says, “Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon seem to have acted in concert in its concoction, from materials thus prepared for them.” (Illustrated History of the Mormons. p. 49.) This book was written in England, though published by Derby and Miller, Auburn, New York, and as it is not characterized with the usual virulence, possibly the author had only heard the general
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statement of the Spaulding story, without those details which utterly overthrow it.
65. In the same manner he is led to say that “anachronisms are frequent” in the Book of Mormon; (Illustrated History of Mormonism, p. 49;) though not a single one is pointed out, for the best reason in the world; none exists. This fact does not rest on testimony, but can be tested at any time by an examination of the book.
HOWE’S GREAT WEST.
66. Henry Howe published, at Cincinnati, in 1854, a “History of the Great West,” in which he revives the Spaulding story, with the theory that Rigdon first heard of Joseph Smith as a vagabond money digger, subsequent to 1827, when Rigdon was a Campbellite preacher, in Mentor, Ohio, and Smith resided near Palmyra, New York.
67. No evidence is offered that Rigdon had the Spaulding manuscript, or that he had ever heard of Smith. The only attempt to show either of these things possible, is the statement that “Rigdon was frequently absent.” (Great West, p. 337.)
68. As Rigdon did not go to Mentor till after Smith was engaged on the Book of Mormon, the suggestion that he there heard of him, and on the faith of his vagabond character, entrusted him with the commission of sole founder of a new religion, of which Rigdon was to come in as junior partner, after the first rugged paths were trod, comes too late.
69. And against the suggestion that Rigdon heard of him at all, till the publication of the Book of Mormon, in the newspapers, is the fact that Mentor, Ohio, is two hundred and thirty miles from Palmyra or Manchester, New York, and in the twentytwo years search which has been made for
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some evidence of a possible collusion between Smith and Rigdon, previous to the publication of the Book of Mormon, not a witness has been produced who could show that any person residing twenty miles from Smith ever heard of him till the annunciation, through the newspapers, of the publication of that book.
70. That Rigdon, as a Campbellite preacher at Mentor, was occasionally absent from home, is too probable to require any proof; but that that fact, equally true of every Christian minister, convicts him of stealing manuscripts to found a new religion on, or of dealing with vagrant money diggers, hundreds of miles away, is a new rule of evidence, to which all other Christian ministers will object.
71. The town of Mentor is only five miles from the town of Kirtland, and Rigdon was the minister of the Campbellite Churches in both towns, and after receiving the faith of the Latter Day Saints, remained at Kirtland till 1837; and till 1848 was prominently connected with all the publick discussions of that faith. Had he at any time previous to the publication of the Book of Mormon made a journey from Mentor to Palmyra, and stopped with Joseph long enough to commit to him the charge of founding a new religion, and the reconstruction of the Spaulding manuscript into an oracle of God, why has no one of the Cambellites about Mentor and Kirtland any knowledge of his going to Palmyra, or of his being absent on some unknown journey, long enough to have accomplished that work?
72. For twentytwo years, since the Spaulding story was first promulgated, as far as Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon have been preached, all Christendom has looked earnestly and with painful anxiety for some such proof, and have looked in vain. Had he made a single journey from Mentor,
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in which he could not be traced step by step, and his employment proved day by day, so as to show the impossibility of his having visited the Seer of Palmyra, that absence would have been announced, and proclaimed the triumph of his accusers.
73. It is obvious that Henry Howe had not investigated the matter at all, but only followed common fame, guessing his way through difficulties, which were apparent on the face of E. D. Howe’s History of Mormonism. His theory of the plagiarism, of the Book of Mormon, is built on the exploded work of E. D. Howe, altered, but not improved, by his own guessing.
FERRIS’ UTAH AND THE MORMONS.
74. Of all the writers who have given currrency to the Spaulding story, the most able and at the same time the most unscrupulous and corrupt, is Benjamin G. Ferris, late Secretary of Utah, author of a book entitled, “Utah and the Mormons.” Ferris not only repeats the old exploded lie, that Rigdon was a printer, but says that at the time Spaulding’s manuscript was in Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office, Rigdon “was in the employment of Patterson, and became so much interested in the ‘Manuscript Found’ as to copy it, ‘as he himself has frequently stated.’ ” (Utah and the Mormons, p. 52.)
75. Such unblushing falsehood it would be difficult elsewhere to find. At the date of Ferris’ publication, the Spaulding story had been twenty years published. Every effort in the power of man had been made to show the “Manuscript Found” in Rigdon’s possession, or where he might possibly have seen it, and so far in vain. Rigdon had presided over a
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Church of three thousand Latter Day Saints, in Pittsburgh; and in the anxiety to destroy his influence, the Rev. Mr. Williams, pastor of a Church in Pittsburgh, aided by the whole clergy, had published a work for the purpose of fastening this plagiarism on Rigdon; and not a witness could be found to say that Rigdon was a printer; not a witness that he was ever in Patterson and Lambdin’s office; not a witness that he was ever in Pittsburgh, while that printing office existed; and not a witness that he ever saw or heard of either Spaulding or his manuscript, previous to the publication of “Mormonism Unveiled,” in 1834.
76. But that is not the darkest feature in this allegation of Mr. Ferris. In saying that Rigdon “became so much interested in the ‘Manuscript Found’ as to copy it, ‘as he himself has frequently stated,’ ” including the last six words in quotations, as though he had copied them from some other writer, Ferris is guilty both of a known falsehood, and an unblushing forgery. (Utah and the Mormons, p. 52.)
77. No man on earth had ever so written. Ferris did not copy his quoted words from any other writer, and it is patent on the pages of his book that he had read and was familiar with those works, on this question, in which Rigdon and his friends have continually denied that Rigdon ever saw or heard of Spaulding, or his manuscript, earlier than 1834, and challenged the world to produce one word of proof against him.
78. Pursuing this course of falsehood, even when truth would seem to serve his purpose just as well, Ferris accounts for the meagerness of the evidence against Smith and Rigdon, by asserting the death of Patterson in 1826, four years before the publication of the Book of Mormon. (Utah and the Mormons, p. 52.)
79. Yet the Rev. S. Williams published, in the city of
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Pittsburgh, the residence of Patterson, in the year 1842, a pamphlet entitled, “Mormonism Exposed,” containing a certificate concerning this same Spaulding manuscript, signed by this same Robert Patterson, and dated April 2d, 1842. And John E. Page, then residing in Pittsburgh, in Apostolick charge of the Latter Day Saints, and abundantly able and disposed to expose Williams, if he introduced any false testimonies, published a pamphlet in reply, and admits Patterson’s certificate into his work without question. Patterson was living, and a prominent citizen of Pittsburgh sixteen years after Ferris writes him dead. And no writer, no man, before Ferris, said he was dead. Ferris is the original author of the falsehood. And this fact does not rest on the assumption of any man. If he had any authority, he has but to produce it. There is none.
80. But with his unscrupulous corruption, Ferris was too shrewd not to see that the theory which says that Rigdon heard of Smith’s fame as a money digger, three or four hundred miles away, and looked him up as a suitable person to employ, to found a new religion, was ridiculous; that some new invention was necessary; or, when passion was over, every sane man would reject the wicked impeachment.
81. Drawing upon his imagination alone, and asserting each point as though it was an unquestioned fact in history, Ferris says, “In the course of his wanderings, Smith met with Rigdon. These two men together conceived the idea of starting a system of religious imposture, commensurate with the popular credulity.
82. “Conjointly they possessed, in mercantile phrase, the requisite capital for such an adventure. Smith had cunning, plausible volubility, Seer stones, mysterious antiquities, and, withal, the prestige of success; Rigdon was versed in the
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lights and shadows of religious verbiage; had some literary pretensions; was a printer; and, above all, had a copy of Spaulding’s book.
83. “Which started the bright idea of the golden Bible, is not known; though, in all likelihood, the credit is due to Smith, as he ever after maintained the ascendency in the new hierarchy. After the plan had assumed a definite form in the minds of the originators, it was easy for Joseph, in his perambulations, to trace out and secure the original manuscript of Spaulding, to guard the intended scheme from exposure.” (Utah and the Mormons, pp. 55, 56.)
84. Thus, without spending one moment in inquiry, without even troubling himself to pick up such facts as were in his reach, much less inquiring for evidence, which twenty years of the most industrious research had failed to find, Ferris sits down in his armed chair, and on a half page of foolscap, demonstrates by his unsupported assertion, not only that Rigdon had a copy of the Spaulding manuscript, but that Smith, while hazing around with peep stones, and mineral rods, strayed off from Palmyra, three or four hundred miles, to Pittsburgh, to look up Rigdon as a partner; as tradition says, the head of a severed snake will look up his eliminated tail, which some mischievous boy has cut off and hidden in the most secret place; but that Smith absolutely traced up the original manuscript, and got possession of that also.
85. Surely, the millions of Christians who had anxiously waited twenty years for some scrap of evidence, that either Smith or Rigdon ever heard of the Spaulding manuscript previous to 1834, ought to be thankful to Ferris, for alleging all they wish to prove, and saving the necessity of evidence. Henceforth no one need trouble himself to prove that Rigdon obtained a copy of the manuscript, for any one can prove
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by Ferris’ falsehood that Smith had the original, without obligation to the copy.
86. Why two men, obscure as Smith and Rigdon, each entertaining the ambition to found a new religion, should curb their zeal, till blindly burrowing like the mole, through the three hundred miles of intervening country, they embraced each other; why the entire task of accomplishing the work should be put upon the most inefficient of the two; why their two minds were so perfectly agreed, that, while one secured a copy, the other secured the original of Spaulding’s manuscript, Mr. Ferris must tell; nobody else can.
87. But, why no other writer ever asserted this, why Ferris does not offer one word of proof in support of it, is very plain. Any body can tell that. It is because there is not a word of truth in it.
88. As if to test the gullability of his readers, and prove how far the Christian world would be satisfied with falsehoods which a schoolboy could detect, so they militated against the divine mission of Joseph Smith, Ferris takes pains to prove that Smith “came into the northern part of Pennsylvania, near the Susquehannah River, in which part his fatherinlaw resided,” and then, to show that Smith might by possibility have found Rigdon there, he adds, “Sidney Rigdon, it will also be recollected, resided in the State of Pennsylvania.” (Utah and the Mormons, p. 61.)
89. True, Rigdon did once reside in Pennsylvania, but it was the other side of the Alleghany mountains, and by the nearest road, meandering around the mountains and through their gorges, more than four hundred miles distant, and he had removed still further off into the State of Ohio, before Smith went into Pennsylvania at all. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 289.)
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90. Pursuing his investigations with unblushing knavery and consummate skill, Ferris rakes over every document he can find, whether forged or genuine, supplying every apparent lack by his own fruitful invention, and laying especial stress upon every ebullition of passion of any of the disciples of Joseph Smith, during a period of a quarter of a century, to impeach the moral characters of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon; and sums up, that by their enemies they were held “very much below par;” and that among themselves a petulent editor, on some disagreement, called Martin Harris a lackey; and that when Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer had some business connection with the set of men who expelled the Saints from Missouri, Rigdon accused them with being “connected with a gang of thieves, counterfeiters, liars and blacklegs, of the deepest die.” (Utah and the Mormons, pp. 68, 69.)
91. This is the same set of men who, in 1838, expelled the Latter Day Saints from Missouri, and in 1854 invaded Kansas, for the purpose of expelling the free State men; David R. Atchison, late member and President of the United States Senate, being the leader in both forays. And though Atchison’s men in either case stopped at no crime, it is certain that many men of the highest standing in the United States have had much more connection with them than Cowdery and Whitmer were accused of, in those hours of peril in which they were unfortunately separated from their brethren.
92. A fact worth all the rest is, that in all those changes which separated the early ministers of this persecuted faith, even when Joseph and many of his faithful brethren were in prison, and the dead bodies of others lying around unburied, and Cowdery and Whitmer in the camp of their persecutors, they still gave the same unvarying testimony of the divine authority of the dispensation and the Book of Mormon; both
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relating circumstantially, on oath, in a Missouri court faced and browbeaten by a Missouri mob, the fact of the exhibition of the plates to them according to their testimony in the Book of Mormon.
93. And Cowdery, under the same circumstances, knowing that he was cast out and hated by his brethren as a traitor, who had joined their enemies and imperiled their lives, testified, on his solemn oath, that Joseph and himself did receive the Priesthood on two different occasions, by the voice of God, and the hands of Angels; relating circumstantially the time and manner of it; knowing well, when he did so, that the Missourians would turn against him more bitterly than his brethren had, and that the best hope which remained for him, was to flee secretly for his life.
94. Though most of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon were, one time and another, separated from the Church, not one of them ever drew back from his testimony, or departed from the faith; and notwithstanding the violent hatred engendered by internal discord among brethren, which grew up against some of them at the time of their separation, they have all lived down scandal and reproach, and by their irreproachable lives have established an unimpeachable reputation for integrity and truth, both among Saints and Gentiles.
95. The reputation of Joseph, as a money digger, and a peep stone Seer, originated in falsehood, and has been kept up for the purpose of ridiculing his calling to the Prophetick office. The truth about it is, that as a day labourer he was employed at wages to dig, not for enchanted treasures, but for money, which tradition said some Spaniards had buried in the bank of the Susquehannah River. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 92. Pratt’s Ancient American Records)
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96. The various jokes about money digging, which from this fact passed between him and his early associates, were industriously gathered up by Philastus Hulburt, duly embellished and made a part of Howe’s “History of Mormonism;” and the affidavits there accumulated, if they prove anything, prove only ignorance, superstition, and the most venial offences, of which the witnesses bring in themselves for the largest share, and leave the reader with the impression that if what they say of Smith is really true, he was rather guilty of an occasional practical joke on their superstition, than of any participation in it.
97. Nothing is more evident, notwithstanding the pains taken to conceal it, than that many of them believed Joseph had the plates, from which he professed to be translating; and one of the witnesses, Willard Chase, testifies that, notwithstanding Joseph’s anxiety to make his possession of the plates a secret, as many as twelve men did get to see them. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 245.) And many of the witnesses who testify that he was not a man of truth, show, nevertheless, that they and others did credit him in matters which, to say the least of it, were a severe tax on one’s credulity.
98. The true test of any man’s character for truth is his power to produce conviction in the minds of those who know him. This power Joseph had in an eminent degree. So much is admitted by his accusers. One of their chief accusations was that his neighbours, during his Prophetick career, believed on his word alone things hardly believable at all. Never was an attempt to impeach witnesses less successful than this, of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. None of the old Prophets had better testimonies than Joseph and James.
1. THERE are two Priesthoods: the Priesthood of an endless life; and the Priesthood of life.
15 words,
72 letters.
The Priesthood of an endless life is commonly called the Melchisedek Priesthood, or the Priesthood after the order of Melchisedek, in honour of Melchisedek, who blessed Abraham, and received tithes of him. Before his time it was called the Priesthood of the Sons of God, because those who hold this Priesthood are Sons of God.
2. In the Priesthood of an endless life are two Orders; that of Apostles, and of Priests.
16 words,
68 letters.
3. Of Apostles there are four Degrees.
6 words,
29 letters.
4. The first Degree is that of Lawgiver, and is Apostle, Prophet, Seer, Revelator and Translator. This Degree is sole, and gives the word of God as from his own mouth.1
30 words,
128 letters.
There is no word in language which properly expresses the varied duties of this Priesthood. It is the greatness of
[1 Ex. iii, 2, 4-6, 10, 15-17. vi, 2, 6. xx, 1-22. Deut. v, 5-21. D. & C. i, 4. ii, 1. iii, 42. xlvi, 1. xiv, 1, 2. li, 2.
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the everlasting Priesthood; and has all the gifts, and all the keys conferred on man. It is so full of itself that it carries the Church of God with it, and can both institute and act in place of every other Priesthood.
2. This Degree is only necessary for the establishment of the rest of God, and bringing in of everlasting righteousness on earth. A less degree of Priesthood has frequently stood at the head of the people of God on earth.
3. Enoch was called to this Priesthood, and, being faithful himself, but failing to redeem the earth, was translated. (Gen. v, 24.) And it seems that many who followed him were translated with him. (Jasher iii, 27-38. D. & C. xii, 1.)
4. Moses was called to the same Priesthood, and down to the time of receiving the Law of the Tables was engaged in the great work of making Israel a holy nation; a peculiar treasure above all people; a Kingdom of Priests. (Ex. xix, 5,6.) By this superiour Priesthood he was entitled to know the incommunicable name of God, which even Abraham did not know. (Ex. vi, 3.)
5. As the Israelites turned from God to calf worship, they were cut off from the rest of God, and were only saved from an entire destruction by coming into an inferiour dispensation, on the intercession of Moses. (Ex. xxxii, 7-14, 31-35.)
6. Hence, on the removal of Moses from his earthly ministry, this holy Priesthood was taken away with him, (D. & C. iv, 4,) and only a portion of the honour of Moses was put on Joshua, who succeeded him in the government of Israel. (Num. xxvii, 18, 20.)
7. Jesus Christ held this Priesthood, and was succeeded sucessively by Peter, James and John. John was the last Revelator in that dispensation. It is apparent that their authority was not equal to that held by him, though they held
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the keys of mysteries and revelations. For after his time no attempt appears to have been made to restore the Kingdom to Israel. Indeed, they were not of the proper lineage to bring about the restoration, not inheriting the promises.
8. The present dispensation was the necessary sequence of that, as that was of the preceding. Not only had the prophecy gone before that the Shepherd and Stone of Israel should come of Joseph, (Gen. xlix, 24. Ante p. 172. Note ii,) but that the house of David should be reestablished on the throne of Israel. (Ezek. xxxiv, 22-24. xxxvii, 21, 27. Jer. xxiii, 5, 6. xxx, 9. xxxiii, 15-26. Hos. iii, 5. Isa. lv, 3-5. Amos ix, 11. Zech. xii, 8.)
9. In the last dispensation the work of the gathering of the faithful and establishing the Kingdom of God could only be accomplished by the heir of David. (Ante p. 175. Note iii.) This was not only secured to David by God’s covenant with him, but it was sealed to the tribe of Judah by Jacob. (Gen. xlix, 8-10.)
10. An objection is sometimes made to a dispensation of the Kingdom, and the Law of God in the last days, because of the saying, “in time ye shall have no King, nor ruler; for I will be your King and watch over you;” “and ye shall have no Laws, but my Laws, when I come, for I am your Lawgiver.” (D. & C. xii, 5.) So far from showing that a dispensation of the Law of God will not be given, this text expressly shows that it will, and that none will have power to administer the Law, but such as are sent in the name of Christ; and that his Law shall so far prevail, that when the time of his coming arrives, his people will be subject to no Law but his.
11. Jacob began his blessing on Judah by saying, “Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be
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in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.” His dominion over the heathen is signified by having his hand in their necks. Over his brethren, by their bowing down before him. And the reason of this superiority is in that superiour adhesion to the covenants of God, which secured the praise of his brethren. (Gen. xlix, 8.)
12. Lest Judah should mistake the import of this language, and commence immediately to rule his brethren, in derogation of the power which Joseph held by revelation, (Gen. xxxvii, 5-10,) he next distinguished him as a lion’s whelp; that is, an heir of royalty, though strong as a lion, the true symbol of royalty. (Gen. xlix, 9.)
13. But fixing with greater exactness what was already stated, that he was speaking of what should befall Israel “in the last days,” (Gen. xlix, l,) Jacob goes on to say, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”* (id. 10.)
14. This language has evident reference to the birth of a Lawgiver, of the line of Judah, and not to the loss of the septre by the house of David. The style of speech aptly describes a birth, and its appropriate office is to inform Judah that though he was to hold the Kingly office, it was not till the last days.
15. With this interpretation agrees all sacred history. Within a few generations Moses was raised up a Lawgiver, though of the tribe of Levi, and was succeeded in the leadership of Israel by Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim. (Num. xiii, 8)
16. Among the Rulers of Israel after him were Tola, of
* In the Doway this verse reads, “The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent; and he shall be the expectation of the nations.”
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the tribe of Issacher, (Jud. x, 1,) Elon, of the tribe of Zebulon, (Jud. xii, 11,) Samson, of the tribe of Dan, (Jud. xiii, 2, 24. xv, 20,) Eli, of the tribe of Levi. (1st Sam. ii, 27, 28.) And when a King was called, it was Saul, of the tribe of Ephraim. (1st Sam. x, 1.)
17. And though after Saul, David, of the tribe of Judah, became King, and the Kingdom remained in his family for many generations, they were none of them made Lawgivers. In David and in his house the Lawgiver did not come forth of the thigh, nor between the feet of Judah. All the Kings of that line, not excepting David and Solomon, were subject to Prophets, whom God set up above them in power. The Prophets could set up and drag down Kings, and command them in their outgoings and incomings. (1st Sam. x, 1. xv, 1, 3, 22, 23, 28. xvi, 13. 2d Sam. xii, 1, 7, 9, 10. 1st Kings i, 38, 39. xii, 22-24. xix, 15, 16. xxi, 20-22.)
18. On the conquest of Judea, by the King of Babylon, the dynasty of David ceased, and was not restored at the end of the captivity, nor at any time previous to the coming of Christ. The Esdraick Temple was built under Persian Governours, selected without respect to their lineage. The Asmonean Kings were of the tribe of Levi. (1st Mac. ii, 54.) Herod was of Gentile stock.
19. Consequently, if this prophecy of Jacob be understood as speaking of the overthrow of the regal power in Judah, it took place several centuries before the coming of Christ.
20. But aside from that difficulty in the Christian exegesis, the gathering of the people was not to Christ. During the whole period of his ministry, Israel was subject to Gentile rule. He had very few followers among the Jews, and none among the Gentiles. The gospel did not go to the Gentiles, till after his death. He had the Priesthood of a Lawgiver,
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but no people to rule, for none gathered to him. He came to his own, and they received him not.
21. In the last days Joseph Smith, of the tribe of Ephraim, was called to the Prophetick office, the Shepherd and Stone of Israel, according to the prophecy of Jacob; (Gen. xlix, 24;) and after him James, of the tribe of Judah, and of the lineage of David, was called according to the prophecy of Jacob, (id. 10,) the prediction of Joseph in Egypt, (B. of M. 2d Nephi ii, 2,) and the covenant of God with David, (2d Sam. vii, 12, 15, 16. Ps. lxxxix, 19, 20, 25, 27-29, 36, 37,) and stands in the office of Lawgiver, having translated most of the Law given to Moses, organized and established the Kingdom of God, and established the Law of God in it.
5. The second Degree is that of Counsellor, and is Apostle, Prophet, Seer and King.
14 words,
63 letters.
1. As Viceroy, this Priesthood is capable of ruling in place of a Lawgiver in matters of administration and judgment. If there was an interregnum in the Priesthood of Lawgiver, the oldest Apostle of this Degree, associated in the administration, or if none was associated, then the oldest in fact would stand at the head till the place was filled.
2. Joshua succeeded Moses under this rule, having been ordained to only a part of Moses’ authority. (Num. xxvii, 18-23. Josh. i, 1, 2.) By that example Sidney Rigdon had a just claim, as against Brigham Young, to stand at the head, after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his Counsellor Hyrum. The only reason his claim was not absolutely valid was, that a successor was duly appointed and ordained.
3. Like nearly every man who sets up a false pretence to the Priesthood, he did not long rest upon this strong position;
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but, without waiting for the true successor to set up his claim, pretended to have obtained the most holy Priesthood, by some new mode, not known to the Law of God, and so fell.
6. The third Degree is that of Embassador. Of these there shall be twelve. They shall be Apostles and witnesses to the nations, and Rulers in all places where the Lawgiver shall send them.
33 words,
149 letters.
1. The Apostles have the duty chiefly of preaching the gospel in all places, where it has not gone. When all the world is brought into the faith, they will be the chief representatives of the supreme authority, to be sent to all places to preside in Conferences, Councils and General Assemblies, and to conduct the affairs of government in all great matters. As the representatives of the Lawgiver, they will exercise royal prerogatives in the great divisions of the earth.
2. The Degree of an Embassador is more honourable than that of the Kings of the earth; for these Embassadors speak by authority, and Kings, who do not obey them, will be cast down.
3. But high as is the Priesthood conferred on them, they have no right to stand in the place of the Lawgiver. They cannot fill the place of Prophet, Seer, Revelator and Translator. They have not the keys of mysteries and revelations. (D. & C. xi, 4. xiv, 1, 2. li, 2. ciii, 39.)
4. It does not appear by the Scriptures that before the time of Jesus Christ this Quorum existed. In Moses’ time twelve were appointed to go and look out the land of Canaan, but their office was but for a short period. There seems to have been no officework for this Priesthood, till the gospel was sent to the nations.
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5. After the time of Jesus, the conducting of the affairs of the Saints remained in the hands of those who were of the Twelve during his time, and many have, therefore, imagined that the Twelve stood at the supreme head of the Church. this is an errour. Peter was raised out of the Quorum of the Twelve, to the Presidency of the Church.
6. The intention to do so was announced previous to the transfiguration. Jesus said to Peter alone, “I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. xvi, 19.) To Peter alone, Jesus, after the resurrection, said, “Feed my lambs; feed my sheep;” (John xxi, 15-17;) signifying that he was to give the words of life, not only to believers, but to preachers.
7. And it is evident that Peter was in fact taken out of the Twelve. The apostacy of Judas made but a single vacancy in the Twelve, and that was filled by Matthias. (Acts i, 21-26.) Yet, without the removal of any other of the Apostles, Paul was very soon called to the Apostleship, and Peter took the general supervision of all the affairs of the Church.
8. Hence Peter, as the general head of the Church, addressed his epistles to the believers throughout the earth; whereas, Paul, as one of the Twelve, addressed his to those Churches in his jurisdiction.
9. John, also, after Peter’s time, acted as Revelator to the Church, giving them the word of God to guide them in the ages to come; and also wrote a general epistle to guide the fathers of the faith, as well as new disciples. (1st John ii, 12-14.)
10. In the present dispensation twelve Apostles were call-
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ed and ordained to this ministry. (D. & C. xlii, 5, 6.) In 1837 a great falling away took place at Kirtland; and the Twelve assumed authority in governing the Church, in derogation of the right of Joseph the Prophet; but God rebuked them, saying, “Rebel not against my servant Joseph, for, verily I say unto you, I am with him, and my hand shall be over him.” “See to it that ye trouble not yourselves concerning the affairs of my Church in this place, but purify your hearts before me, and then go ye into all the world and preach my gospel unto every creature; for unto you (the Twelve) and those (the First Presidency) who are appointed with you to be your counsellors and your leaders is the power of this Priesthood given, for the last days, and for the last times.” (D. & C. civ, 6, 7.)
11. Notwithstanding this, at the death of Joseph, Brigham Young claimed, in behalf of the Twelve, to supercede the entire First Presidency and stand at the head of the Church; urging upon the Saints that such was the true order, and that the Twelve had not been suffered to fill their proper place during the life time of Joseph;* and in this claim was sustained by an immense meeting of the Saints, hurriedly assembled together at Nauvoo, the 8th of August, 1844.
12. One week later Brigham put forth an epistle to the
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President Young then proceeded to speak, and give his views of the present situation of the Church, now that the Prophet and Patriarch were taken from our midst by the wickedness of our enemies. For the first time since he became a member of the Church; a servant of God, a messenger to the nations in the nineteenth century; for the first time in the Kingdom of God, the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, chosen by revelation, in this last dispensation of the gospel for the winding up scene, present themselves before the Saints to stand in their lot, according to appointment. While the Prophet lived, we all walked by sight; he is taken from us, and we must now walk by faith. After he had explained matters so satisfactorily that every Saint could see that Elijah’s mantle had truly fallen upon the Twelve, he asked the Saints what they wanted. Do you want a guardian, a Prophet, a spokesman, or what do you want? If you want any of these officers, signify it by raising the right hand. Not a hand was raised.
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whole Church, vindicating this claim,* and it was generally acceded to in the Church. A very few followed the Prophet James, and as the Twelve could not stand against the arguments presented by his followers, they finally changed their position, acknowledged their former errour, and attempted to patch it up by electing Brigham Young First President, and H. C. Kimball and Willard Richards Counsellors, which they accomplished at Winter Quarters, Dec. 24th, 1847.
13. This did not help their case in the least; for the same Law which placed the Twelve under the direction of the First President, made it necessary that the successor of Joseph should be appointed by revelation of God, through him, (D. & C. xi, 4. xiv, 1, 2. li, 2. lxxxv, 2,) and that he should be ordained by an Angel. (D. & C. xiv, 2, compared with 1, 2, 3. Ante p. 165. Note. Ordination by Angels.) They only succeeded in bringing Brigham Young into the Prophetick office by a revelation of the will of man, and no ordination at all.
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*AN EPISTLE OF THE TWELVE.
TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS,
IN NAUVOO AND ALL THE WORLD—GREETING.
BELOVED BRETHREN:— * * * You are now without a Prophet present with you in the flesh to guide you; but you are not without Apostles, who hold the keys of power to seal on earth that which shall be sealed in heaven, and to preside over all the affairs of the Church in all the world; being still under the direction of the same God, and being dictated by the same spirit, having the same manifestations of the Holy Ghost, to dictate all the affairs of the Church in all the world, to build up the Kingdom upon the foundation that the Prophet Joseph has laid, who still holds the keys of this last dispensation, and will hold them to all eternity, as a King and Priest to the Most High God, ministering in heaven, on earth, or among the spirits of the departed dead, as seemeth good to him who sent him.
Let no man presume for a moment that his place will be filled by another; for, remember, he stands in his own place and aways will; and the twelve Apostles of this dispensation stand in their own place and always will, both in time and in eternity, to minister, to preside and regulate the affairs of the whole Church. BRIGHAM YOUNG,
President of the Twelve
Nauvoo, August 15th, 1844.
—Times and Seasons.
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14. At the same time James stood in this Priesthood, the heir of David, duly called by revelation of God to be a Lawgiver, an Apostle and a Prophet of the Most High God, ordained by the highest instituted power in heaven or on earth.
15. Nine days before his martyrdom, Joseph received and wrote a revelation containing this calling, and put it in the confidential archives of the Church. At the same time he sent the appointment to James in a letter. At the very moment of Joseph’s death he was ordained according to the Law of God, and has from that time filled the office. Only two of the Twelve, John E. Page, and William Smith, acknowledged his calling, and the others being tried and condemned, their places were filled.
7. The fourth Degree is that of Evangelist.1 Evangelists are Apostles, and witnesses of the Kingdom, to whatever nation they are sent. Seven are a full Quorum; and there shall be but one Quorum to any nation, kindred, tongue or people.
40 words,
184 letters.
The general duties of Evangelists are the same as of the Twelve. But their mission is only to a single nation. Very few have been sent, and a Quorum has never been organized in this dispensation.
8. Of Priests there are, two Degrees.
6 words,
27 letters.
9. The first Degree is that of High Priests.
8 words,
33 letters.
All inferiour Kings, Patriarchs, or heads of tribes, and Nobles, or heads of clans, ought to be of this Priesthood.
[1 Acts xxi, 8. Eph. iv, 11. 2d Tim. iv, 6. D. & C. iii, 17. civ, 8.
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They who are faithful in the calling, have the gift of prophecy. Hence High Priests are frequently spoken of under the name of Prophets. (1st Sam. x, 5, 6, 9, 10. 1st Kings xviii, 4. Neh. vi, 7. Isa. xxix, 10. xxx, 10. Jer. ii, 8, 26. iv, 9. v, 13. viii, 1. xiii, 13. xiv, 13. xxiii, 14, 15. xxvi, 7, 16. xxvii, 15, 16, 18. Ezek. xiii, 3, 4. xxii, 25, 28. Amos ii, 11, 12. Mic. iii, 6, 11. Zeph. iii, 4. Zech. xiii, 4. Acts xi, 27, 28. xiii, 1. xv, 32. 1st Cor. xii, 28, 29. xiv, 29. Eph. iii, 5. iv, 11.)
10. The second Degree is that of Elders.
7 words,
29 letters.
In degree of Priesthood the Seventies are the same as Elders. They have a diffierent mission, and are therefore classed separate, and placed in different Quorums, with a different discipline.
11. In the Priesthood of life are three Orders; that of Priest, of Teacher, and of Deacon.
16 words,
67 letters.
1. The Priesthood of life is commonly called the Aaronick Priesthood, after Aaron, who, with his family, in their gene-rations, held that Priesthood, to the exclusion of the rest of Israel, from the time of Moses till Jesus Christ.
2. This honour was bestowed upon the tribe of Levi, for having stood firm against the rest of Israel while Moses was in the Mount receiving the Ten Commandments; and slaying with the sword those who engaged in idolatry; and they became Priests to the other tribes; whereas, but for the falling away, all Israel would have been Priests to the rest of the nations of the earth. When the gospel went to other nations, the restriction of this Priesthood to one tribe ceased.
3. From the Biblical history, it would seem strange that Aaron, who made the calf, should have been placed at the
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head of this Priesthood. But, in truth, be was compelled, on pain of death, to make it. (Jasher lxxxii, 13, 14.) Aaron had, in fact, induced those worshipping the calf to put off their armour, (Ex. xxxii, 25,) so that when Moses called for those who were on the Lord’s side to take up the sword and slay the idolaters, the tribe of Levi alone were found armed, and made a great slaughter of the other tribes. Aaron, instead of being guilty of idolatry, took the most efficient means of making a full end of it. (id. 26-28.)
4. Aaron, therefore, by his personal conduct, was worthy to stand at the head of this Priesthood, according to his rank as the Chief, or Prince of the tribe of Levi. This right never extended beyond the Tabernacle, and the Temple at Jerusalem, and the ordinances and ceremonies connected therewith.
12. Of Priests, of the Priesthood of life, there shall be a Chief Priest, a first and second High Priest, and a Leader of each Course of Priests, to every Temple.
30 words,
123 letters.
In the Bible the Chief Priest of the Temple is called High Priest, and those next him Chief Priests; but such a translation does violence to the truth, because a Priest might be high in the Priesthood, and not Chief; but Chief is evidently above all.
13. This Priesthood shall be divided into Courses, according to the nature of their duties; and officers appointed in the several Courses, to guide and direct in the duties of the Course. In organizing the Courses, those may be included who have been ordained to a higher Priesthood.
47 words,
227 letters.
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1. Until Temples are completed, the principal Courses will be Sacrificators and Singers. After that other Courses will be necessary.
2. As women may be Priests, of the Course of Singers, so it is not unlawful that a woman should be Leader; and in the Synagogues, it may often be expedient to appoint a woman Leader of the Singers.
14. Of Teachers there are five Degrees; Rabboni, Rabbi, Doctor, Ruler, and Teacher.
12 words,
62 letters.
This Priesthood, in all its Degrees, may be conferred on women, as well as men; and ought to be conferred on the learned, who aid in improving the publick mind, though not professional Teachers.
15. Of Deacons there are three Degrees; Marshals, Stewards, and Ministers.
10 words,
57 letters.
Total—15 sec., 290 words, 1,318 letters.
NOTE I.—NECESSITY OF A PRIESTHOOD.
1. Men never institute a Law, without officers to be the keepers, expounders and administrators of that Law. Should they do so, the endless questions of interpretation arising in practice would nullify the Law.
2. When God revealed his Law to men, he instituted a Priesthood, and set it in order, to be the keepers, the expounders and the administrators of his Law. Hence the say-ing, “No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2d Pet. i, 20.)
3. Without such a Priesthood, qualified to truly expound
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the word of God, the Scriptures would be wrested by those who do not understand them, to their own destruction. (1st Cor. ii, 16. 2d Pet. iii, 16.) The instructions of the authorized Priesthood should be received as an interpretation of the Law, and as obligatory on the faithful. (Deut. xviii, 15, 18, 19. xxxii, 7. Acts iii, 22, 23. 1st Cor. xi, 2. 2d Thess. ii, 15. iii, 6. 2d Tim. i, 13. ii, 2. iii, 14.)
4. If any one had for a moment imagined that it would be consistent and wise in God to institute a Law among men, without also instituting a body of men to keep, expound and administer that Law, the result of the experiment, which has been tried with the Bible, ought to brush away all such imaginings.
5. So poorly has the Bible been kept, that it is in dispute among the learned, whether numerous Books in it ought not to be expunged; and equally in dispute whether numerous Books, not contained in it, ought not to be inserted. The leading question of this nature is, as to the Books which, in Protestant Bibles, are called the Apocrypha. But great numbers of learned Christians entirely discard the Books of Ruth, Esther, Canticles, and Daniel, and not a few Jude and Revelations. On the other hand, many allow the Book of Jasher, and several later works which have been gathered up, and published under the name of the Apocrypha of the New Testament.
6. Aside from these questions, as to what Books are entitled to a place in the Christian Bibles, there are other questions equally grave as to what is contained in the Books. More than thirty thousand variations occur in the different exemplars of the Scriptures, without any means whatever of determining which is the right reading. Though many of these variations are of trifling moment, great numbers of them
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go to the sense of the reading, and some have a direct bearing on the most difficult questions of doctrine. Several of the most important controversies in the Christian world turn upon passages of disputed validity, and would be decided in a moment by erasing the alleged forgeries.
7. Surely these facts are enough to show that there ought to be an authorized keeper of the Law, having power to determine what is Law, and what are interpolations. But on the interpretation, it is enough to know that more than five hundred various Christian Churches have grown up, differing in faith and discipline, all professing to conform to the Bible, and each justifying its difference by its interpretation of the same word.
8. For the rest, if it be true “that the Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless disobedient; for the ungodly, and for sinners; for unholy, and profane; for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers; for manslayers; for whoremongers; for them that defile themselves with mankind; for menstealers; for liars; for perjured persons; and for things contrary to sound doctrine,” (1st Tim. i, 9, 10,) then it is necessary that there be administrators of the Law of God, with power to punish the disobedient and rebellious.
9. For such persons will not yield, except by compulsion, to a righteous Law. The inducement of good order and general peace and happiness, is not sufficient to restrain them. They will not be governed by precepts, but only by the mandate which says, Thou shalt and thou shalt not, and compels obedience by penalties, as well as induces it by rewards. To make a Law for such men, without officers to enforce it, would be vain folly. And the fact that God’s Law is against such, should admonish all that it is to be enforced by rewards and punishments, as well as inculcated by precept.
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NOTE II.—LOSS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
1. It clearly appears from the old Scriptures, as well as the recent revelations, that no one can act in the name of God; that is, no man can act in the Priesthood, but he that is called by revelation of God, and ordained by the hands of those holding the Priesthood. (Ante i, 2, pp. 20, 21.)
2. Thus the call of Joshua was revealed to Moses, by the word of God, and he was ordained under Moses’ hand. (Num. xxvii, 18, 23. Deut. xxxiv, 9.) Aaron also was called by direct revelation, (Ex. xxviii, 1,) and was consecrated by Moses, by most august ceremonies. Paul, speaking on this subject, says, “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Heb. v, 4.) So all- pervading did he regard this rule, that he goes on to show that Jesus Christ himself did not assume the Priesthood, but was elevated to it in conformity with this rule.
3. The Apostles practiced by this rule, and held that only by it could a qualified Priesthood be obtained. Paul, in exhorting Timothy, says, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery.”* (1st Tim. iv, 14.) Thus the gifts necessary to a faithful and successful ministry are supposed to be conferred with the Priesthood, in the manner determined by the Law of God.
4. This being the rule in God’s Law, it is a matter of unquestionable fact, established by all history, that all Christendom are destitute of the Priesthood. There is not a single
*In the Doway this verse reads, “Neglect not the grace which in in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the imposition of the hands of the Priesthood.”
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one of all the Christian Churches which makes the slightest pretension to having a Priesthood, so called and ordained.
5. The Roman Catholicks, and several of the Eastern Churches, do claim a regular succession of ordinations, from the Apostles down to the present time, and possibly some of them may maintain their claims by history, to that extent; but the calling of their Priesthood has for ages been anything else but by the word of God. In the Levantine countries, the calling of the Priesthood was, from the time of Constantine till the prevalence of Mohammedanism, for the most part in the hands of the civil power.
6. During the long struggle between Mohammedanism and Christianity, it passed through numerous vicissitudes, frequently following the fate of war. Since the Turkish power was firmly seated, the Priesthood is generally purchased with money. (Goodrich’s History of All Religions, pp. 165,169.)
7. In the Roman Catholick Church, the control of the Priesthood has been kept as much as possible in the hands of the Pope and Bishops. But these do not make the slightest pretence that candidates for the Priesthood are selected by revelation. Moreover, it has often occurred that in order to prevent a schism of a national Church, and losing his power over it altogether, the Pope has been obliged to yield the selection of Bishops to the civil power, reserving to himself only the right of investure; so that Bishops, chosen by the fiat of the King, and not by the will of the Pope, and much less by the voice of God, made Priests whomsoever they would, or such as the State which gave them power desired them to Consecrate.
8. As for the Popes, on whose regular succession the Romanists principally rely to sustain their claim to the Priesthood, in succession from the Apostles, they are not ordained
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at all. That is, they are never ordained Popes or Bishops of Rome. But any one who has been ordained Bishop, no matter to what See, on being elected Bishop of Rome, enters upon the Papal office without any further ordination. Popes, therefore, are ordained to no Priesthood, but that of Bishop. A succession of ordinations to the Episcopal office is problematical; and as for a call, they are generally elected by a Conclave, in which all manner of diplomacy and national intrigue have influence; and the election has, on several occasions, been determined by war.
9. If all the old Christian Churches are unable to exhibit a Priesthood called of God, Protestants, and other modern Churches, can show neither a regular call, nor a succession of ordinations, from the time of the Apostles. They have no Priesthood beyond what men, by their mere motion, without authority from God, can confer.
10. The Episcopal Church, from which a majority of the Protestant Churches derived their existence and their Priesthood, is an offshoot of the Roman Catholick Church. Before examining its claims as the true Church of God, it is well to bring to mind that God had revealed but one faith, established but one system of religion; that true religion cannot be derived from false, and that a true Priesthood can be derived from none but those who possess it.
11. The Roman Catholick Church either was or was not the Church of God. If it was the Church of God, all who separated and dissented from it, separated and dissented from the true Church. They are false.
12. If it was not the Church of God, then as all Protestants derived whatever they have of Priesthood from it, they derived their Priesthood from something other than the Church of God, and have no authorized Priesthood.
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13. So it makes little difference with the pretensions of Protestants, whether the Roman Church was or was not true. They equally fall to the ground, whatever may be true of that. But they have given it its character as idolatrous, and incurably corrupt.
14. In one of the authorized homilies of the Episcopal Church, it is alleged, “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, and that for the space of eight hundred years or more.” And John Wesley, a Deacon of the Episcopal Church, but the Father of the Methodists, says, “The real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were no longer to be found in the Christian Church, was because the Christians were turned Heathens again, and had only a dead form left.” (Sermon 94.)
15. Such being the character of the Roman Catholick Church, when some of the Bishops and Priests protested against her authority or her corruptions, and set up separate Churches, what Priesthood had they? The Heathen, the Idolatrous Priesthood to which they were ordained in Rome? They could scarcely derive a true Christian Priesthood through that eight hundred years of most abominable idolatry, which overwhelmed all Christendom.
16. In behalf of the Episcopacy of England, it is often claimed that they have a separate succession of Bishops and Clergy, derived from Saint Paul, and are not dependent on the Popes of Rome for their Priesthood. But after this declaration, that all Christendom, Clergy and laity, men, women and children, were idolaters for eight hundred years, it is of little consequence from whence they commence deriving their Priesthood. They bring it through that idolatry; for they
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make no pretence of a new dispensation, of the Priesthood, at the time of the Reformation.
17. Nor, if it is admitted that the first Bishops in England were ordained by Paul, can any show of evidence be produced of a succession of ordinations from them, through the period of Papal control in England. Many, and for ought we know, all the Bishops received their ordinations in Rome.
18. But at the time of the separation, most of the Bishops adhered to Rome, and were cast out, and new Bishops put in their places by the civil power, and of those who remained, it cannot be shown that a single one was ever ordained at all, by any one who had himself been ordained. Moreover, the doctrine long prevailed in England, that the Episcopal authority was rightly derived from the civil power, as it has in fact been derived ever since the separation; and the form of ordination was for a long time so defective, as not to amount to an ordination at all.
19. In fact, therefore, the Episcopal Church have not Bishops, who can show a succession derived from as far back as the end of this eight hundred years of idolatry, say nothing of going through it to the Apostle Paul. And, as the Priests are ordained by the Bishops, and not in succession by each other, they derive their power from the same source.
20. Thus tracing the history of Episcopal and Priestly succession in the Episcopal Church, back to the time of Henry VIII, King of England, and it is derived in fact, from laymen, set up by the State; and by their own highest pretentions, is only derived from an idolatrous fountain.
21. Lutherans only derive their Priesthood from Martin Luther, who was ordained a Priest of the Roman Catholick Church, and possibly from some of his associates who had no different authority. They were not ordained Priests in
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the Lutheran Church, but Priests in the Roman Catholic Church, which gave them power to preach and establish the doctrine and discipline of that Church; not to overthrow it. If the Roman Catholick Church was the Church of God, it cast them out as schismaticks and hereticks, and delivered them to anathema. If it was not the Church of God, it could not give them the Priesthood of God.
22. The Methodists have an anomalous form of Episcopacy, of a most singular description. John Wesley, a Deacon of the Episcopal Church in England, ordained a great number of men to preach, who were not Priests in any Church, for he did not allow them to administer sacraments. (Buck’s Th. Dic., Methodists, iv, New Connection) After these had built up societies at home and in foreign countries, he ordained some kind of anomalous superiours for foreign countries, among them Thomas Coke for America.
23. Coke claimed, by virtue of this ordination, under the hands of Wesley, who was only a Deacon, that he was Bishop, and the Methodist Church so acknowledged him. (Discipline, ch. i, sec. 1.) And from this source alone is derived the Episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
24. Wesley disclaims having ordained Bishops. If his disclaimer is true, Coke was a miserable impostor, and the act of the Conference acknowledging the validity of his Episcopal ordination, a swindle. If, on the other hand, Wesley’s disclaimer was hypocritical, and he did really ordain Coke Bishop, he became just such a Bishop as any other Deacon of that Church can make over any other Church.
25. Perhaps no more singular feature is developed in this matter, than the fact that the founder of the Methodists lived and died an Episcopalian; and as an Episcopalian, but without any authority from that Church, conferred the Meth-
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odist Priesthood on all the first preachers of that faith.
26. The condition of the Baptists, is in this respect, no better; for though they sometimes deny being Protestants, and claim a separate derivation from theirs, approaching the Apostolick ages, there is not the slightest evidence on which to justify such claims. In different ages there have been transitory schisms, in the mountain regions of Europe, from the Roman Catholick Church. But these different schisms did not derive their Priesthood from each other in succession, but each in its time, commenced with schismatick Romanist Priests. And they were not Baptist Churches, but schismaticks, who separated from Rome, some on one question, and some on another; but all agreeing with her in the main.
27. The real derivation of the Baptists of America, is from Roger Williams, who had only an Episcopalian ordination, and a lay baptism. The attempt to patch up this bald beginning by sending to England a few members of the Providence Church, to be baptized and return and baptize others, only carries the difficulty back a few generations earlier, to the time when the English Baptists had a similar beginning.
28. So unfounded are all pretences of an Apostolick succession in Protestant Churches, that many learned Protestants have fairly acknowledged that they had no Divinely instituted Priesthood, and undertaken to justify building up Churches without it; satisfied either with a Priesthood instituted by themselves, or, with none at all.
29. Paul prophesied of them, when he said, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2d Tim. iv, 3, 4.)
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30. Such a Priesthood could not possess the gifts which are received by prophecy, and the laying on of hands of the Priesthood. (1st Tim. iv, 14. 2d Tim. i, 6.) They would hold office in defiance of the rule that “no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Heb. v, 4.) John, and Charles Wesley, seem to have had some idea that a religious society like the Methodists, with such a man made Priesthood, was something less than the Church of God; for they describe it as “no other than a company of men, having the form, and seeking the power of godliness.” (Bucks Th. Dic., Methodists, iii, Government and Discipline.)
31. That a Priesthood, so made is no Priesthood, all Churches do practically confess. For they will not allow the laity to ordain Clergymen; nor the inferiour Clergy to ordain the superiour; nor a Clergyman of another sect, to ordain a Clergyman for them.
32. Equally do they all practically confess that a Priesthood is necessary in the Church, for each in some way have contrived to elevate men to that calling, and to devolve upon them certain prerogatives, which the laity are not allowed to exercise. Certain sacraments and ordinances they practise as a part of their religion, which they do not allow to be valid, unless administered by a Priest. By these means they practically say, that the foundation on which they have built is not sound.
33. But with all the pains these Churches have taken to put on the form of godliness, though without the power, (2d Tim. iii, 5,) they have missed of the form also. God has set in the Church Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers, (1st Cor. xii, 28. Eph. iv, 11,) and declared these several Orders and Degrees necessary for the work of the
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Ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and for the perfecting of the Saints; until they all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto perfect men, of the same measure and fulness as Christ. (id. 12, 13.)
34. Now, among all the Christian Churches, there is none which has this form; and as this is the only godly form, none has so much as the form of godliness in the matter of their Priesthood. Not one pretends to have in the Church, Apostles, Prophets and Evangelists.
35. Roman Catholicks have, first, the Pope, then Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and Priests, and some inferiour orders, who merely assist the Priests in sacraments and ceremonies.
36. The Greek, and most of the Eastern Churches, have the same order, except that with some the Patriarch and with some the Bishop is the highest.
37. Episcopalians have the same order, beginning with Archbishops, and in the United States with Bishops; and with this the Episcopal Methodists substantially agree; their Bishops answering to the Archbishops, and the Presiding Elders to the Bishops of the Episcopacy; but with this difference, that among Methodists no one is settled as Pastor of any congregation, but with a joint pastorate, they are distributed around from time to time.
38. Among other Churches nothing is seen that makes any approach to the Priesthood of the Christian Church, in its various grades, offices and authorities. In numerous Churches, under pretence of Christian liberty, a republican system of Priesthood and government has been instituted, where all men hold their power, not by the voice of God, but by the suffrages of the laity.
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39. Others, like Baptists and Congregationalists, with, perhaps, but one Order or Degree in the Priesthood, have a merely Democratick form of government; where he who should be a Teacher sent from God is made Pastor by the single act of the congregation over which he presides, and may be cast out of the Priesthood by them; as though the sheep could choose and judge the Shepherd, instead of being chosen and judged by him.
40. Apostles and Prophets looked for and prophesied of this falling away. Daniel, in his vision of the horn which had eyes and a mouth, (Dan. vii, 20,) shows that he shall wear out the Saints of the Most High, and think to change times and Laws, and they shall be given into his hand; but, that, afterward, the judgment shall sit, and take away his dominion. (id. 25, 26.) To the same import Paul wrote to the Church at Thessalonica, warning them of so great a falling away, that the Man of Sin should exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. (2d Thess. ii, 3, 4.)
41. John the Revelator prophesied the loss of the Priesthood, and the apostacy of the Church, by some of those magnificently eloquent symbols so often used to inform the faithful, without imparting knowledge to unbelievers.
42. The Church is represented as a woman, clothed with the sun, the fountain of natural light; because the Church is clothed in the light of God’s revealed word; and having the moon under her feet, because not guided by reflected light, or mere human wisdom. In respect to the Apostolick missions, the chief means of establishing and extending her dominion, she is represented with a crown of twelve stars. (Rev. xii, 1.)
43. This woman is about to be delivered of a child, who shall rule the nations; a power which pertains to the highest
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order of Priesthood; and a great red dragon stands ready to devour this child as soon as it is born; but the child was caught up to heaven, and thus preserved; that is, in plain, unsymbolical language, that Priesthood which shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, or an iron sceptre, was removed from earth, and taken up to God. (Rev. xii, 2, 3, 5.)
44. The woman flees from the dragon into the wilderness, where, instead of being nourished from the presence of the Redeemer, with the waters of life, as she ought, being his wife, she is nourished from the face of the serpent, (Rev. xii, 14,) while the dragon went to make war with the rest of the children born of the woman; that is, the rest of the Priesthood, which God had raised up in the Church. (id. 17.)
45. In this persecution, the Saints were quite overcome, and all power over all kindreds, tongues and nations, passed into the hands of a ruler, represented as a terrible beast, which had already received the power of the dragon, and all who have not already had their names written in the Book of Life, go after and worship this beast; so that under his reign, no more become Saints; no new Priests could be raised up to fill the places of the dying, and a single generation made an end of the true Priesthood. (Rev. xiii, 7.)
46. It is difficult to read these symbolical prophesies, without seeing that the Pagan Roman Empire was the dragon; that the Emperour Constantine was the serpent which nourished the woman, and, therefore, substantially the serpent and dragon were the same power; and, that the beast was Papal Rome, the same thing, with a changed form, and a new name; Papal having grown out of, and received its power from Pagan Rome.
47. It is curious, therefore, that the next which is seen of this woman, she is mounted on a scarlet coloured beast, (cor-
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responding with the dragon in colour,) full of names of blasphemy; no longer clothed with the sun, or the light of God’s word, but with purple, and scarlet, and gold, and precious stones, and pearls, which Constantine and his successors bestowed on her, when he nourished her with the spoils of Heathen Temples, and the riches of his Empire. (Rev. xvii, 3, 4.)
48. She now, in this new character, carries a cup full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication, and has the name written upon her forehead, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.” (Rev. xvii, 4, 5.) She is now called a whore, (id. 1,) because, having been (in the symbolical sense) the married wife of Christ, this woman (now destitute of all Priesthood or authority from God) has given herself to the embraces of Gentile Kings, and receives her support from the countenance of ungodly and usurping Emperours.
49. This being the Protestant view of this prophecy so far, how blind are they, not to see that, having sprung from her, they are the harlots, her daughters; being distinguished from her by the fact that as they were never married to Christ, their prostitution in an unlawful union with the Kings of the earth, makes them, not whores, but harlots. Most aptly do these symbols apply to those Churches which were separated from Rome as a matter of State policy, produced of whoredoms, and incestuously prostituted to the corruptions, vices and tyrannies of the States which produced them.
50. Thus the Priesthood disappeared from the earth, and was reserved by the power of God in heaven, against the day when he should reveal it anew on earth, and commit a new and final dispensation of the Kingdom unto man. And all the religious sects have, in one way and another, become the witnesses that they have no true Priesthood of God.
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NOTE III.—RESTORATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
1. The restoration of the Priesthood, of the gospel, and of the Law of God, in the last days, is the subject of numerous prophecies. All the prophecies of the Kingdom of God, to be established in the last days, involve the idea of instituting a Priesthood, with plenary power to make disciples, to administer all the sacraments necessary to their sanctification and perfection, and to take the dominion and administer justice and judgment. (Dan. ii, 44, 45. vii, 13, 14, 18, 22, 27. Mic. iv, 1, 2. Isa. ii, 2, 3. xlii, 1-4. Jer. xxiii, 5. xxxiii, 15-26. Oba. 21. Matt. vi, 10. Rev. xi, 15. xiv, 6, 7. xviii, 4. xix, 15.)
2. Without going over the mass of these, a single one, by John the Revelator, concerning the restoration of the gospel, will be sufficient: “I saw another Angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying, with a loud voice, ‘fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.’ ” (Rev. xiv, 6, 7.)
3. As John was in this vision shown one of the things which should happen thereafter, (Rev. iv, 1,) the grave question arises, why was an Angel to be sent with the gospel to be preached to men that dwell on the earth? For no reason, but that men on the earth were destitute of the gospel. If there was a knowledge of the gospel, and a godly ministry to preach its truths, and administer its sacraments on earth, there could be no occasion for sending an Angel with it.
4. And as this Angel was sent with the gospel, to be preached “to every nation, kindred, tongue and people,” it
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follows that every nation, kindred, tongue and people were destitute of it; otherwise the Angel would not have been sent with the gospel, to be preached to them.
5. This text thus stands as a distinct announcement that God would, in the latter days, restore the gospel to the earth, which would then be destitute of it. But the idea has become so prevalent among Protestants that the gospel may have a separate existence without the Priesthood, that it is worthy of passing notice, that simply revealing the doctrine of the gospel would not bring the gospel to men.
6. If a book containing the whole doctrine of the gospel were placed in the possession of a Pagan people, and they should read and believe it, they could not be said to possess the gospel. Neither could they become Saints by that fact alone. For God has appointed a door into his Church, by which only can any one enter, to wit, baptism. So that even Jesus himself could not fulfill all righteousness, except by being baptized. (Matt iii, 15. John iii, 5. x, 1, 3.)
7. Or, to be more explicit, the gospel does not consist in doctrine only, but also in sacraments, and in the power from God to administer those sacraments. Consequently this Angel seen by John, is sent of God to restore to men on earth the doctrine of the gospel, with the knowledge of its sacraments, and the power or Priesthood to administer those sacraments.
8. Let no one imagine for one moment that this Angel is to preach the gospel. Such is not the prophecy. John saw the Angel flying through the midst of heaven, not through the earth or air, but having the gospel to preach to men on earth. The Angel was a Minister of the will and work of God in heaven; not on earth.
9. Nor would it be meet or proper to send an Angel actu-
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ally to preach, but only to commit a dispensation of the gospel to men to preach. Even Christ took not on him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham; made in all things like unto his brethren; that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, (Heb. ii, 16, 17,) because thus he could be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, being in all things tempted and tried as we are. (id. iv, 15.)
10. The office of the Angel is accomplished in committing a dispensation to the chosen of God, and preparing him for the work, by giving him a proper knowledge of the gospel, and the authority to administer in all the appointments of God. And this work was accomplished in the calling of Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdery, and in the Priesthood and revelations committed to them, for the beginning of the ministry.
11. As this proposition is fundamental, it deserves to be treated with more than a passing notice. That they did receive a dispensation of the gospel, does not rest merely on their assertion that they received the Priesthood of life under the hand of John the Baptist, and afterwards the Priesthood of an endless life under the hands of Peter, James, and John, (D. & C. 1, 2, 3,) nor on the testimony of the eleven witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Nor does it rest on any similar testimony, or any testimony which the voice of man can possibly impeach.
12. They instituted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which, alone, of all the Churches on earth, is possessed of the gospel of the Son of God. How should men hear the gospel without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? (Rom. x, 14, 15.) And no man taketh this honour, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron; (Heb. v, 4;) who was selected by the mouth of a
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Prophet. He who is not so called, cannot preach the gospel, because “the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Now, we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1st Cor. ii, 11-14.)
13. As in the Church instituted by them alone, of all the Churches on earth, the doctrine of the gospel as it came from God is preached and believed, the conclusion is inevitable that this alone is the true Church of God. As the Priesthood derived in succession from Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery do understand the things of God and proclaim them according to God’s word, unquestionably they are sent of God. That the gospel preached by this Priesthood, and believed in this Church, is that revealed by Jesus Christ, is made apparent in its proper places throughout this Book of the Law, and the arguments and testimonies need not to be repeated here. That no other Churches give heed to it, their creeds and confessions of faith sufficiently show.
14. God established two Priesthoods in the Church, consisting of divers Orders and Degrees. None of the sects have such, and none pretend to it, because, not being sent of God, they cannot work by his pattern. They are even ignorant of the distinction between the two Priesthoods, and know not whether to claim their Priesthood as one or the other, or something different from either.
15. Jesus Christ, when he sent the Apostles to preach the
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gospel to all the world, gave promise that certain signs should follow those that believed the word preached. (Mark xvi, 15-18.) As all Christendom avow that those signs do not follow the preaching of their gospel, they are self-condemned as not preaching and believing the true gospel. As these signs do follow the preaching of the gospel and the belief of it among those whom Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery sent in the name of God, it is equally satisfactory evidence that they have received a dispensation of the Priesthood from the Angel whom John saw flying through the midst of heaven.
16. The publication of the Book of Mormon is the first epoch in the publick attention to the dispensation of the fulness of times. Aside from literary defects and editorial and mechanical blunders, it is the most extraordinary Book of this productive and progressive age. It traces, for a period of one thousand years, the history of a semicivilized population, extending over half the American continent with such minuteness, that the student in modern geography finds no difficulty in locating their nations and cities, and most of the events in their history.
17. Their cities, temples and structures used in religion and war, form the same prominent feature in their history which such works usually do in the history of a people in a low state of civilization, and in some instances are minutely described. Such a work should have commanded the attention of antiquarians and historians in all the world. Prejudice has shut the eyes of the learned to this vast fund of knowledge.
18. A few years later the American government sent the distinguished traveler and learned savan, John L. Stevens, as Embassador to Central America, accompanied by the artist, Mr. Catherwood, with permission to inquire into and examine
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the antiquities and aboriginal monuments of that country. These learned gentlemen, after a sojourn of less than two years, returned and published, as the result of their labours, a minute account of cities, temples, altars, fortresses, kingly palaces and national monuments, of gorgeous grandeur, scattered in vast and rich profusion over all that sunny region; desolated and without inhabitant over which the ancient forest had grown in gigantick majesty, which the prying curiosity of man had not penetrated for countless ages. These cities, these towers, these temples, these palaces, were the same that the Book of Mormon had before mentioned. The same rivers water them, and the same mountains surround them, which the believing student had read of ten years before, in the writings of the Seer of Palmyra.
19. Even the pictures painted upon the walls of palaces, temples and dwellings, are a faithful illustration of the history contained in the Book of Mormon, and as plainly record the great events there written out, as the pictures and statuary in the Capitol at Washington do the written history of the United States. The correspondence between the monumental and pictorial history, as discovered by Stevens and Catherwood on the one hand, and the written history as translated by Joseph Smith on the other, was perfect.
20. Yet learned men, antiquarians and historians, still close their eyes to its consequence. Concede for once what is claimed by all but the disciples of Joseph Smith, that the Book of Mormon is an imposture, no matter by what means got up, how did its authors discover the secrets of past history, and make their writing correspond with the since discovered monuments? The power to do it is essentially a divine power, quite as much so as that of prophecy.
21. This fact alone, sustained as it is by an overwhelming
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mass of evidence, is enough to vindicate the sacred character of the Book of Mormon, the Apostolick character, and true witness of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and to vindicate the Church by them instituted as the institution of heaven, and the new dispensation as a dispensation of life from the Almighty.
22. If the Book of Mormon was an imposition, it could scarcely fail to contain modern figures, modern forms of speech, allusions to modern facts and modern discoveries in the arts and sciences, and ten thousand other evidences of its modern origin. So certain was this, that the sincere unbelievers in its divine authority made this the ground of their attack upon it, and based their unbelief on the assumption of the existence of such evidences of a modern origin.
23. In searching for such evidence, it was discovered that the Book of Mormon mentions the use of steel several centuries prior to the Christian era, and history was appealed to, to show that the manufacture of steel was a modern art, invented since the Roman Republick. Against this it appears from the Bible that steel was used in the time of King David. (2d Sam. xxii, 35. Ps. xviii, 34.)
24. It is now a well known fact, that the art of making steel of an excellent quality is one of the ancient arts of the Hindoos, practiced by them from remote and unknown ages, by a process different from that in use among the western nations. Their art and that of the Hebrews are doubtless the same. It is only the European process which is modern. So this argument falls to the ground.
25. An imperfect compass was in use among the nations whose history is written in the Book of Mormon. Such is now proved to have been in use among the Chinese, from the earliest antiquity. The Book of Mormon shows the exist-
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ence of herds of horses and cattle in America in early periods, whereas the present stocks are supposed to have all orig-inated with the European stocks brought over since the time of Columbus.
26. The lama and the buffalo are beasts of burden and draft, which might with propriety be called by those names. The buffalo is as truly an ox as the European bos. And the evidence that the wild horses all sprang from European stocks is anything but satisfactory. Though it is certain that the Mexicans of the time of Cortez, did not use horses, the Mexicans of this time insist that certain breeds of horses now running wild, are of American origin, and were not introduced by Europeans. Their great unlikeness to horses of western Europe, justifies the Mexican opinion.
27. Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, has proved, in a very interesting work, published by the Smithsonian Institution, that there existed in America in ancient times two species of ox of great size and value, which have disappeared so recently that several specimen of their bones and horn cores are in existence. These were the oxen spoken of in the Book of Mormon, and have become extinct for want of attention. Domesticated for ages, they perished when they lost all attention from man, not being adapted to a wild state in this climate. Thus answers the unbeliever to this cavil.
28. The call of a successor to the Prophet Joseph in exact fulfillment of prophecy, and the continuation of the work of the dispensation in the very order in which he had begun it, though the largest share of the disciples of Joseph went off on another plan, is not one of the least evidences that it was God’s work. And the revelation to the Prophet James, by the divine word of the plates at Voree, is probably the best proved, to this generation, of any miracle since the
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world began.* No man, either Apostate, Christian, or Infidel, has ever attempted to answer the evidence of it, though it was a subject of rather general notice in the newspapers at the time, and has been before the publick for more than ten years.
29. Indeed, in more than a quarter of a century, which has elapsed since the restoration of the Priesthood, and the opening of the dispensation, no attempt has been made to meet and answer the evidence that it was of divine authority. Nu-
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*REVELATION.—The Angel of the Lord came unto me, James, on the first day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and fortyfive, and the light shined about him above the brightness of the sun, and he showed unto me the plates of the sealed record, and he gave into my hands the Urim and Thummim. And out of the light came the voice of the Lord, saying, My servant James, in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee, because I have tried thee, and found thee faithful. Behold, my servant James, I am about to bless thee with a great blessing, which shall be to those who love me, an immutable testimony; to those who know me not, a stumbling block; but to those who have known me, and have turned their hearts from me, a rock of offence.
Go to the place which the Angel of the presence shall show thee, and there shalt thou dig for the record of my people, in whose possession thou dwellest. Take with thee faithful witnesses; for in evil will the unfaithful speak of thee; but the faithful and true shall know that they are liars, and shall not stumble for their words.
And while I was yet in the spirit, the Angel of the Lord took me away to the hill in the east of Walworth, against White River, in Voree, and there he shewed unto me the record buried under an oak tree as large as the body of a large man; it was enclosed in an earthen casement, and buried in the ground as deep as to a man’s waist, and I behold it as a man can see a light stone in clear water; for I saw it by Urim and Thummim.
TESTIMONY.—On the thirteenth day of September, 1845, we, Aaron Smith, Jirah B. Wheelan, James M. Van Nostrand, and Edward Whitcomb, assembled at the call of James J. Strang, who is by us and many others approved as a Prophet and Seer of God. He proceeded to inform us that it had been revealed to him in a vision that an account of an ancient people was buried in a hill south of White River bridge, near the east line of Walworth County; and leading us to an oak tree, about one foot in diameter, told us that we would find it enclosed in a case of rude earthen ware under that tree, at the depth of about three feet; requested us to dig it up, and charged us to go examine the ground that we should know we were not imposed upon, and that it had not been buried there since the tree grew. The tree was surrounded by a sward of deeply rooted grass, such as is usually found in the openings; and upon the most critical examination, we could not discov er any indication that it had ever been cut through or disturbed.
We then dug up the tree, and continued to dig to the depth of about three feet, where we found a case of slightly baked clay, containing three plates of brass. (Continued on next page)
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merous false tales have been put afloat, for the purpose of bringing the institution and the Priesthood into disrepute; none to meet the question of its divine authority on the merits.
NOTE IV.—OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
1. Among the works published against the Priesthood of Joseph Smith, and his associates, and their successors, and the authority of the Book of Mormon as one of the Sacred Records, the leading work, from which all others are more or less derived, is E. D. Howe’s “History of Mormonism.” This work first appeared in 1834, under the title of “Mormonism Unveiled.”
2. Of this book thirtyseven pages are made up of the certificates and affidavits of nearly one hundred persons, to prove that Joseph and his associates were vagrants, moneydiggers, and superstitious, ignorant and vicious persons, and
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The case was found imbedded in indurated clay, so closely fitting it that it broke in taking out; and the earth below the soil was so hard as to be dug with difficulty, even with a pickaxe. Over the case was found a flat stone, about one foot wide each way, and three inches thick, which appeared to have undergone the action of fire, and fell in pieces after a few minutes exposure to the air. The digging extended in the clay about eighteen inches, there being two kinds of earth of different colour and appearance above it.
We examined as we dug all the way with the utmost care, and we say, with the utmost confidence, that no part of the earth through which we dug exhibited any sign or indication that it had been moved or disturbed at any time previous. The roots of the tree struck down on every side very closely, extending below the case, and closely interwoven with roots from other trees. None of them had been broken or cut away. No clay is found in the country like that of which the case is made,
In fine, we found an alphabetick and pictorial record, carefully cased up, buried deep in the earth, covered with a flat stone, with an oak tree one foot in diameter, growing over it, with every evidence that the senses can give that it has lain there as long as that tree has been growing. Strang took no part in the digging, but kept entirely away, from before the first blow was struck till after the plates were taken out of the case; and the sole inducement to our digging was our faith in his statement as a Prophet of the Lord, that a record would thus and there be found.
AARON SMITH, JIRA B. WHEELAN,
J. M. VAN NOSTRAND, EDWARD WHITCOMB.
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that they got up the Book of Mormon as a speculation.
3. First, among these is an affidavit of Peter Ingersoll, dated Palmyra, Wayne County, N. Y., Dec. 2d, 1833, certified by Thomas P. Baldwin, Judge of Wayne County Court, to have been sworn before him, “according to law,” the 9th day of Dec., 1833. A few pages subsequent, are the certificates of six witnesses that Ingersoll is worthy of credit; a rather suspicious circumstance, considering that his veracity had not been questioned.
4. This same Peter Ingersoll is now a resident of Lapeer County, Michigan, and solemnly denies that he ever signed or made oath to the affidavit, or any other affidavit on the subject. As Thomas P. Baldwin certifies that Ingersoll did make oath to the statement, according to law, whereas, in fact, the law did not authorize him to administer any such oath, or any extrajudicial oath whatever, his certificate is, to say the least, not to be received against Ingersoll’s solemn statement that he never swore to the affidavit. The certificate is certainly false in one point; for as there is no law for administering such an oath, it could not have been done according to law.
5. But as the name of Ingersoll is certainly forged, that of Judge Baldwin probably is. The title of his office is erroneously written to his signature, a mistake he would not be likely to make himself, though E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, might; not being acquainted with New York jurisprudence. In 1833 there was not in the State of New York such an office as Judge of the County Court. Circuit Courts, Oyer and Terminer, Common Pleas and General Sessions were held for every county, but there was no “County Court.” Every official act requiring the signature of a Judge, was signed by him as Judge of some one of these particular
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Courts; not as Judge of some imaginary Court, having no existence.
6. Upon an examination of all these certificates, it will be perceived that not one of them is authenticated in legal form; some are not signed at all; they are often contradictory one to another, and much of them is on hearsay. Not one is certified under the seal of any Court. When it is considered that religious animosities are the bitterest of all human hatred, and that these were got up on the ground where Joseph commenced his ministry, among those most bitterly opposed to him, if the certificates were really genuine, the wonder would not be that though a righteous man so much was said against him, but so little.
7. Bunyan, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Whitfield, if so judged, on the exclusive testimony of their enemies, would come off worse, and Jesus and his Apostles far worse. But at this time, while most of the witnesses, whose testimony is recorded against him, are yet living, scattered through half the States, and able to answer for themselves, the Saints know and continually assert that most of these certificates are forgeries, never sworn, signed or seen by those whose names are signed to them; and they perpetually challenge the world to the investigation, assured that the cause which must be supported by forgery is rotten.
8. No one need start up in surprise and say, men would not dare publish forged certificates and affidavits. It is not a crime, by the law of any State in the Union. The affidavits, being extrajudicial, and of no legal force, the laws will not take cognizance of the forgery, if they are forged, nor of the perjury, if they are false. But E. D. Howe, the author of the book, is an Ohio lawyer, and in getting up the book attempted to give these evidences a legal form, and he has
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made such certificates over the names of Justices and a Judge, as those officers would not use in the State of New York, unless ignorant of their own official designations.
9. Moreover, though the object of these certificates is to impeach the credibility of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and the character of the Prophet himself they are anything but unanimous, and prove little against them but being superstitious. On this the accusers have no advantage of the accused; for Stafford, one of the witnesses, certifies that he furnished them a sheep to sacrifice to an evil spirit to appease his wrath, so that he would not spirit away hidden treasures they were digging for, and was to have a share of the enchanted treasures when found.
10. Not one word of this mass of testimony is worthy one moments credit, both because it is unquestionably forged, because, if genuine, it is too ignorant to be worthy of notice, and because often contradictory. It has received attention from those only whose minds were made up, and on the assumption that ignorance, superstition, and falsehood, was sufficient to refute what they had already condemned as ignorance, superstition, and falsehood.
11. The leading purpose of these testimonies was to overthrow the evidence that the Prophet Joseph possessed the plates, from which he professed to have translated the Book of Mormon. They have never been reviewed by his followers; yet our enemies, being the judges, they fail of their purpose; for it is now admitted, even by Mr. Ferris, late Secretary of Utah, the ablest writer against the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph, that he did “exhume one or more of those curious glyphs, which now figure so largely in the list of American antiquities,” consisting “of metallick plates, covered with hieroglyphical characters,”—“written from top to
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bottom, like the Chinese, or from side to side indifferently like the Egyptian and Demotick Lybian.” (Utah and the Mormons, p. 54.) And Thomas Ford, late Governour of Illinois, though he does not admit the actual existence of the plates, allows as a probable theory that the witnesses of the Book of Mormon thought they saw them; and, consequently are not false and corrupt, but superstitious and deceived witnesses. (Ford’s History of Illinois, p. 257.)
12. But the grand assault on the Prophetick character of Joseph Smith, is, that known as the Spaulding story. This is to the effect that the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, of Conneaut, Ohio, in 1810, wrote a book entitled, “Manuscript Found,” giving a fictitious account of the emigration of some Jews to America, and their wars, settlements and national affairs, so as to account for the tumuli and other antiquities about Conneaut; which manuscript afterwards fell into the hands of Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, and was by them reconstructed into the Book of Mormon.
13. The evidence offered to prove this, is, the certificates of seven witnesses, made in 1833, that they read and heard read the Spaulding manuscript, in 1810 and 1811, and that, on the introduction of the Book of Mormon there, subsequent to 1830, when it was first publshed, they recognized it as the “Manuscript Found,” of Solomon Spaulding, with which they had been acquainted twentytwo years before.
14. The inference from these facts is, that the Book of Mormon, instead of being translated from plates, was copied from the Spaulding manuscript. Now, Conneaut is less than fifty miles from Kirtland, the gathering place to which the Saints began assembling in 1831. If the Book of Mormon was such an imposture, could the authors of the imposture, men who at least had the talent to succeed, have been guilty of
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the folly of gathering their disciples so near the scene of their imposture? It is incredible. A blunderer would have got out of the way of so certain exposure. Men who make such blunders, are never successful impostors. The leaders had no need to go to Kirtland, before all the great west, that they should thus set down at the very gate of exposure and inevitable ruin.
15. So great is the improbability that an impostor would do any such thing, that it could only be believed on the most overwhelming evidence. No motive can be imagined sufficient to induce any one to plagiarize a book, palm it off as an inspiration, build up a Church upon the imposture, and then transplant that Church bodily several hundred miles, and locate it only one day’s travel, on one of the greatest, thoroughfares of the continent, from where the imposture was as certain of detection as the sun to rise. Nor could this going to Kirtland possibly be attributed to accident, or necessity. Smith and Rigdon pressed it on their followers.
16. The testimony of the witnesses ought to be read and judged, with a view to this exceeding improbability; and the genuineness of their certificates ought to be looked after with the suspicion engendered by the examination of the former set, accumulated by the same author.
17. Solomon Spaulding was educated at Plainfield Academy and Dartmouth College, and had studied Law and Divinity, and preached several years. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 279.) His style must have been good. From his enterprise, his tastes and habits, and especially his fondness for reading and writing, it was probably highly cultivated. The style of the Book of Mormon is exceedingly barbarous, probably more ungrammatical, and worse English, than any other book in the language which ever went through a second edi-
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tion, carrying upon the face of almost every page those peculiar Yankeeisms which a man of education never speaks, much less writes; and proves that whoever rendered it in English, whether author or translator, was very ignorant of the lang-uage. It may be said not to be translated, strictly, into English, but into a barbarous Yankee tongue, familiar to the uneducated of the last generation, but now nearly forgotten.
18. Yet these very marks of great ignorance of the English language, in either author or translator, are the marks by which the witnesses pretend to identify the work. Henry Lake certifies to telling Spaulding that the frequent use of the words, “and it came to pass,” sounded ridiculous. Unquestionably it does; and for that reason Solomon Spaulding could not have so written. He could not have written in that style, to imitate the Bible, as some have said; for that language occurs many times as often as in the Bible, and could only have originated in a very barbarous language, having an exceedingly limited vocabulary.
19. The witnesses also remember that the names of Nephi, Lehi, and others found in the Book of Mormon, occurred frequently in the Spaulding manuscript. Twentytwo years, the time elapsing between hearing the Spaulding manuscript read, and reading the Book of Mormon, is a long time to remember the mere fictitious names, interwoven in a romance, and the place where they are interwoven in dreams of fancy. The names might be remembered, without being in Spaulding’s manuscript; for they originated some thousand years earlier, (Jud. xv, 9, 14. 1st Chron. v, 19. 2d Mac. i, 39,) and were in familiar use in the days of Samson and Nehemiah, though few readers of these names now remember where they have read them.
20. One of the witnesses, Henry Lake, tells of an inconsist-
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ency in the tragick account of Laban, contained in Spaulding’s manuscript, and also in the Book of Mormon, which he pointed out to Spaulding, and he promised to correct; (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 282;) certainly a very strong circumstance, except for the material fact that the inconsistency is not pointed out, and does not exist.
21. Another witness, John N. Miller, whose memory is so tenacious as to recognize “many passages in the Book of Mormon as verbatim from Spaulding, and others in fact,” and to “find in it the writings of Solomon Spaulding from beginning to end,” recognized it by “some humorous passages,” which Spaulding frequently read to company. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 283.) As there is not a humorous passage in the Book of Mormon, his testimony, if, indeed, he ever gave it, will go for nothing.
22. Another witness, Oliver Smith, remembers that Spaulding’s manuscript gave an account of the arts, sciences, and civilization of the first settlers of America. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 235.) But the Book of Mormon contains none of these things. There is not only no history of these things in the Book of Mormon, but they are so slightly alluded to in any way, that it is impossible to know what arts and sciences existed among the people whose history is there recorded; and the opinion prevails that they were in a state of semibarbarism, because their history consists of little but emigrations, settlements, religion and wars.
23. They generally agree that the religious part of the Book of Mormon is not Spaulding’s, and that his object was to account for the antiquities found so abundantly about Conneaut, by writing a romance which should be a plausible history of their origin. Now the Book of Mormon does not in any way account for the origin of those works. It does
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not place one of its scenes in that region, nor give account of the construction of any similar structures, nor does it appear by it that any person mentioned in the Book of Mormon ever saw or heard of the great Lakes of North America, or ever approached the Lake region, or the region of its peculiar class of antiquities, except as a fugitive, near the closing scenes of the book. And if the religious part of the book was taken out, most of it would be lacking, including every leading fact in the history of all those men whose names these veracious witnesses so well remember.
24. Had testimony like this been given in open Court, upon a regular examination and cross examination of witnesses no judicious mind would have deemed the case made out. But when it was picked up by a lawyer, in exparte examinations of witnesses opposed with religious zeal to the cause he is attacking, it amounts to nothing at all. The plan once set on foot, it is a matter of surprise that so bald a case is made out.
25. Unable to get certificates signed to his own satisfaction, Howe has added an unsigned certificate of one witness, Artemas Cunningham, (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 286,) and numerous unsupported statements of his own, of what various other persons said and would have said if he could have found them, and asks the world on such exparte unsworn, unsupported, contradictory, incredible and impertinent testimony and hearsay to believe the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from Spauldings romance. Against the credibility of any part of the testimony that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from the “Manuscript Found,” is the overwhelming fact that, in 1832, Orson Hyde introduced the Book of Mormon at Conneaut, (New Salem, Ohio,) and there preached and built up a numerous Church among Spaulding’s
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old neighbours, many of whom were familiar with his “Manuscript Found.” They could not be deceived, and could have no possible inducement to establish themselves and their children and friends in a delusion.
26. But there was still another difficulty to encounter; that is, to show by what possibility Joseph Smith could have become possessed of Spaulding’s manuscript. If it was unquestionably shown that he held it, it would be a question of no consequence how he came by it. But while the testimony that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized, was defective, it was at least necessary to show that Spaulding’s manuscript might by possibility have fallen into Smith’s hands.
27. So important did Howe deem this portion of his undertaking, that he traced up the family of Spaulding from Conneaut, through Pittsburgh and Amity, in Pennsylvania, Onondaga and Otsego counties, in New York, and from there to the State of Massachusetts, where he found Spaulding’s widow, and learned that she had left a trunk of Spaulding’s manuscripts in Otsego county, New York. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 287, 288.)
28. The light began to break. Here was a chance to prove the imposture by bringing forward the very book, written by Spaulding in 1811, which Joseph was pretending to translate in 1829. The trunk was opened, and in it was found “a romance, purporting to have been translated from the Latin, found on twentyfour rolls of parchment in a cave, on the banks of Conneaut Creek.” (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 288)
29. What further was done, Howe does not see fit to tell. He says, that this was the wrong manuscript; suggests that Spaulding had altered the plan of his book, thrown this by and written it over again, and that it was the rewritten man-
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uscript which Smith had plagiarized; says he showed this manuscript to several witnesses, who had already certified to the identity of the Book of Mormon, with the Spaulding manuscript, who excused themselves of a lie by saying, that Spaulding “told them he had altered his plan of writing.” (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 288.) That such an alteration was actually made, is possible; for though Howe omits all mention of it, the testimony of the widow (then Matilda Davison) and daughter of Spaulding (Mrs. McKinstry) published in the Quincy Whig, shows clearly that the genuine duly entitled “Manuscript Found” was delivered personally to Hulburt, Howe’s agent, in 1834, at Monson, Massachusetts.
30. Failing thus to identify the works, he returns to the important task of showing that by possibility Smith could have possessed himself of the “Manuscript Found.” And on this point he asserts this, no more: that the widow thinks the manuscript was once taken to the printing office of Patterson and Lambdin, at Pittsburgh; (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 287;) that Lambdin is dead, and, therefore, cannot testify, and Patterson does not know anything whatever on the subject. (id., p. 289.)
31. This is absolutely all that he pretends to have made out. Here starts conjecture; that as Rigdon came to Pittsburgh, in 1823 or 1824; is said to have been intimate with Lambdin, studied the Bible, went into the Western Reserve, Ohio, and commenced preaching there the Campbellite doctrine, then new, and contained in the Book of Mormon, as well as the Bible, about the same time that the veracious Palmyra witnesses have Smith engaged in money digging, tavern lounging, and vagrancy, Lambdin must have surreptitiously copied Spaulding’s manuscript; Rigdon must have
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stolen Lambdin’s copy; rewrote it to suit his purpose; and, in some of his long clerical visits to Pittsburgh, struck off three hundred and fifty miles, through the wild byways of the Alleghany mountains and the Susquehannah River, to where the boy vagrant Joe was digging money, and employed him to found a new religion. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 289, 290.)
32. This is the whole case, as made out by Howe, in his Mormonism Unveiled, in 1834. This work, under the title of History of Mormonism, has gone through numerous editions since; but all end here. Time has not added one word. The friend and assistant of Howe, Philastus Hulburt, spent a full year in tracing up the Spaulding manuscript, and accumulating testimonies, guesses and forgeries, of which the latter make the largest share. What does it make out? Unanswered, is there enough of it to raise a suspicion? If suspicion was already awakened, is there anything to confirm it? Does not the meagerness of the case, and the suspicious character of the testimonies, damn the accusers?
33. Though this tale was swallowed by those who were ready to believe anything against the Prophet, either with or without evidence, there were those who saw the necessity of obtaining something in the shape of testimony. Resort was had to Mrs. Davison, late widow of the late Solomon Spaulding, to see if in her waning years her memory had not brightened.
34. Austin, of Monson, and Storrs, of Hollister, Massachusetts, visited the widow of Spaulding, and after obtaining what information they could, drew up a letter, to which Austin signed her name, agreeing in some minor features with Howe’s History, but stating that Spaulding did exhibit “his manuscript to Patterson, who was much pleased with it, and
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borrowed it for perusal,” and after retaining “it a long time, informed Mr. Spaulding, that, if he would make out a title page and preface, he would publish it;” and also that the manuscript was carefully preserved by her till Hulburt (Howe’s agent) called upon her for it, in Monson, Massachusetts in 1834; contrary to Howe, who makes her say she “has no distinct knowledge of its contents,” “and is quite uncertain whether it was ever brought back from Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office.” (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 287, 288.)
35. This letter alleges that “Sidney Rigdon was at that time (which she makes some time previous to 1815) connected with the printing office of Patterson and Lambdin;” and that the manuscript was returned to Mr. Spaulding, when he removed to Washington county, where he died, in 1816, and that she took it with her, and it has been frequently read by her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, of Monson, Massachusetts, and other friends, till 1834, when Philastus Hulburt (Howe’s assistant) came, introduced by her old neighbours, Henry Lake, Aaron Wright, and others, to get it for the purpose of comparison with the Book of Mormon. This letter was published in the Episcopal Recorder, of Sept. 12, 1840, the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, of Nov. 16, 1842, and the newspapers generally.
36. This so far contradicted Roves version, in the attempt to make a stronger case, that numerous persons called on the widow and daughter of Spaulding, in Monson, to make personal inquiries. Among them, Mr. John Haven, of Hollister, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, published in the Quincy Whig, a letter stating that the widow says she never signed the letter published over her name, and never saw it till after its publication, and had no agency in the origin of
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it, except answering some questions asked by D. R. Austin, who afterwards wrote the letter, without her authority.
37. But she states the important fact, that she delivered the original manuscript to Philastus Hulburt, the associate of Howe, on an agreement of his to publish it, and give her half the profits; and that she “subsequently received a letter, stating that it did not read as they expected, and they should not publish it.”
38. In Howe’s History of Mormonism, the fact that the real Spaulding manuscript was in the author’s hands, was covered by a very thin veil. It is difficult to read the published letter in the name of Spaulding’s widow without perceiving that fact, though it is not positively stated. But here it comes out clear and distinct.
39. Howe, when he published the History of the Mormons, had the Spaulding manuscript entire and unmutilated before him. He had employed an agent to travel more than one thousand miles, in tracing it up; got possession of it, and compared it line by line with the Book of Mormon. Had there been one page which agreed, he would have copied it in his “Mormonism Unveiled,” as the unanswerable evidence that Joseph Smith was an impostor, and the Book of Mormon a plagiarism. “It did not read as they expected.” The Conneaut witnesses were dishonest, or mistaken. This is the bitter end of the Spaulding story.
40. But it may not be amiss to set down some additional facts, showing that the whole body of those who had a hand in making and propagating it, were willing to resort to falsehood. In the letter extensively published over the name of Spaulding’s widow, she is made to say, “Sidney Rigdon, (one of the founders of the sect,) who has figured so largely in the History of the Mormons, was, at that time, 1812, ’13 and ’14,
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connected with the printing office of Mr. Patterson, as is well known in that region.”
41. Now, Spaulding went to Pittsburgh in 1812, and remained but two years. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, pp. 282, 287.) And Rigdon did not go to Pittsburgh till 1823 or 1824. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 289.) So that at least nine years before Rigdon ever visited Pittsburgh, the manuscript was returned to Spaulding; for the widow, in the same letter, certifies that “the manuscript was returned to the author, who soon after removed to Amity, Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1816. The manuscript then fell into her “hands, and was preserved carefully. It has frequently been examined by” her “daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, of Monson, Massachusetts, and by other friends.”
42. Moreover, if Rigdon had been connected with Patter-son’s printing office, that fact could have been proved by Patterson himself. And it was a very important fact for Howe, in making his case. Howe did apply to Patterson for information, and learned that Rigdon arrived at Pittsburgh in 1823 or 1824, but did not learn that he was ever in the printing office for one moment. And it otherwise appears that the firm was dissolved, and the business closed long before that time. The only inference is, that, in endeavoring to supply a known vacuum in the evidence, Austin and Storrs set down this falsehood in the letter, to which they set her name, without any authority whatever.
43. To set this question fully at rest, John E. Page, while in Apostolick charge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Pittsburgh, in 1843, published a book on this Spaulding story, in which he furnishes numerous affidavits, certificates and testimonials that Rigdon was but fifteen years old when Spaulding went to Pittsburgh, and but seven-
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teen when he left there, and was all that time at work on his father’s farm, and that he remained there employed only at farm labour till 1819, five years after Spaulding left Pittsburgh, and three after his death; and that the Spaulding manuscript was in the continual keeping of Spaulding, Mrs. Spaulding and their daughter, from when it left Patterson’s office, in 1812, 1813, or 1814, when Rigdon was a farm boy in the back country, of fifteen to seventeen years, till 1834, when it was put into the hands of Hulburt, the agent of Howe, to be published as an expose of the plagiarism of the Book of Mormon.
44. This work of Page’s, issued on the very scene of action, all its statements supported by the testimony of witnesses then living at and in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, distributed by thousands, and challenging investigation, no man ever attempted to answer. Not a position or an assertion in it was ever attacked. Not a man can be found on earth who, after reading it, pretended to believe the Spaulding story. Not a man can be found in Pittsburgh who pretends that Rigdon was ever in Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office, or ever saw Lambdin.
45. Not only is there this entire failure to trace the Spaulding manuscript to Rigdon, but there has never been the first step made towards tracing it from Rigdon to Smith. In the investigation which so grave a question has called out, both Rigdon and Smith have been traced, step by step, from their cradles till after the publication of the Book of Mormon; and not an iota of evidence has been produced that they were ever within three hundred miles of each other; or that either of them had any kind of fame or notoriety by which the other could by possibility have heard of his existence, until after Joseph translated the Book of Mormon.
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46. While the matter was yet fresh in the publick mind, Rigdon, through the newspapers, denied having ever seen or heard of Spaulding, or his manuscript; denied having any connection with, or knowledge of, Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office, or any acquaintance with Lambdin; and challenged investigation at Pittsburgh, where plenty of witnesses could be found to contradict him, if his statements were not true.
47. Patterson remained there, an influential citizen, and a respectable member of a Christian Church. In 1842, Rev. S. Williams, of Pittsburgh, undertook the task of supplying the lacking evidence, and published a work called, “Mormonism Exposed,” in which he failed to produce a single witness that Rigdon had any connection with the printing office, or Lambdin.
48. Though eight years before, when “Howe’s History of Mormonism” was published, Patterson had no recollection of any such manuscript, (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 289,) he now certifies that some gentleman from the east did bring there a singular manuscript, chiefly in the style of the Old English Bible, of which he read a few pages. But unfortunately for our accusers, he certifies that the manuscript was committed, not to Lambdin, but to Silas Engles, a man of most excellent character, who had charge of the entire concerns of the office; was a good scholar, and an excellent printer, to whose decision was entrusted even the question of the morality and scholarship of works offered for publication; and that Engles, after a few weeks, returned the manuscript to its author.
49. The sum of the facts, therefore, is this: 1st. The testimony offered to prove that the Book of Mormon has any similarity to Spaulding’s “Manuscript Found,” is of the most
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doubtful character; quite as likely to be forged as genuine; and, if genuine, more likely to be false than true. 2d. The original, unmutilated “Manuscript Found,” was in the hands of E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, in 1834, when he first published his History of Mormonism, and was by him suppressed, because there was no resemblance between it and the Book of Mormon. 3d. There is no evidence that Lambdin ever saw or heard of the Spaulding manuscript. Patterson’s testimony shows it improbable that he saw it; impossible that he copied it. 4th. If Lambdin had it, it is so improbable that Rigdon ever saw or heard of it, as to be next to a certainty that he did not. 5th. If Rigdon had it, it is impossible that he ever transferred it to Joseph Smith, or ever heard of him, until after the translation of the Book of Mormon.
50. Complete as is this failure, every subsequent writer has, for want of any other means of attack, fallen back on this. But it is marvellous, how men in high standing have filled up with their own assertions every defect in the chain of evidence, and lopped off every contradiction and inconsistency; reserving to themselves as much of the lie as had the semblance of truth, and adding what was necessary to perfect the falsehood.
GUNNISON’S HISTORY OF THE MORMONS.
51. Gunnison, in his History of the Mormons, (p. 94,) says, that when the “Manuscript Found” was put in the hands of Lambdin, the printer, “Sidney Rigdon was employed to edit it for the press.” No writer, no witness had ever asserted this; but it was necessary to make out the case, and he volunteered the falsehood, not knowing the fact, that at that time Rigdon was only a farmer’s boy of fifteen, and that it
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was Engles instead of Lambdin who had the manuscript.
52. In the attempt, however, to show that the boy Joe had such a reputation as a money digger, at Palmyra, New York, that Rigdon, at Pittsburgh, four hundred miles away, heard of him, and intrusted to him the scheme of founding a new religion, Gunnison breaks down and admits it incredible. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 94.)
53. Gunnison then asserts, that from 1817, to 1820, the trunk supposed to contain the manuscript was at the house of the widow Spaulding’s “brother, in Onondaga Hollow, [Onondaga county, New York] near the residence of the Smiths; [Palmyra, Wayne county, New York;] Wayne and Onondaga counties being separated by a narrow township of land.” (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 95.)
54. Now, it is a fact that the whole breadth of Cayuga county lies between Onondaga on the east, and Wayne on the west; that Onondaga Hollow is in the east part of Onondaga county, and Palmyra, the residence of the Smiths, in the west part of Wayne, making the residence of Smith some eighty miles from Onondaga Hollow. As Smith was but twelve years old at that time, the inference of Gunnison that he smelled out a manuscript eighty miles off, and stole and laid it by to use in founding a new religion, at some future day, is not very forcible. He would need a revelation, at least, to guide him in finding it.
55. But Gunnison’s premises are fatal in still another point He locates Spaulding’s manuscript at Onondaga Hollow, from 1817 to 1820, (History of the Mormons, p. 95,) during all which time the Smith family, according to Howe, lived at Royalton, Vermont, (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 11,) two hundred and eighty miles from Onondaga Hollow. If Howe’s authority is not good for the residence of the Smiths,
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it is not for the Spaulding story. If it is, Gunnison’s conclusions are worse than worthless.
56. Though Howe’s History of Mormonism, which Gunnison principally followed, almost shows Spaulding’s manuscript in Howe’s hands, the letter of Spaulding’s widow, published in the newspapers generally, from 1839 to 1842, showed that she had it in her possession from her husband’s death till Hulburt, the agent of Howe, came after it, in 1834, and that her daughter, and other friends in Monson, were in the habit of reading it, down till that time, and leaves the reader with the impression that she delivered it to Hulburt, for Howe’s use; and the testimony of both the widow and daughter, published in the Quincy Whig, and extensively republished, most positively asserts that it was so delivered to Hulburt, on an agreement to publish it, and that they received a letter from those having it in charge that they should not publish it, because it did not read as they expected; Gunnison ventures the assertion that, ever since the Book of Mormon appeared, the “Manuscript Found has been the manuscript lost;” and apparently oppressed with his own theory, that Smith at the age of twelve had been inspired with the knowledge of its existence in an old trunk eighty miles away, and stolen it; still guesses that by accident or design it got into Smith’s hands in some way. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 95.)
57. The testimony of both the widow and daughter that the manuscript of Spaulding was only about one quarter as large as the printed Book of Mormon, and, therefore, contained but about one twentieth the reading matter, neither Howe, Gunnison or any other writer has noticed.
58. But Gunnison claims, that, notwithstanding the barbarous style of language in which the Book of Mormon is
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rendered, it is really a work of genius of the highest order. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, pp. 95, 96.) One eighteenth, he says, is copied from the Bible. If the whole of Spaulding’s manuscript was copied into it, it would make but one twentieth, and something like nine tenths would remain the work of Smith. A little singular it is that the unlettered Joe and the learned Solomon Spaulding should have the same masterly and commanding genius, and write in the same barbarous style.
FORD’S HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
59. Governour Ford, in his History of Illinois, jumps over all the difficulties, and without pretending to any information beyond what Howe’s History Contains, makes the sweeping and unsupported assertion that “Rigdon had become possessed of a religious romance, written by a Presbyterian Clergyman, in Ohio, then dead, which suggested the idea of starting a new religion. It was agreed that Joe Smith should be put forward as Prophet; and the two devised the story that golden plates had been found, containing a record inscribed on them in unknown characters, which, when deciphered by the power of inspiration, gave the history of the ten lost tribes of Israel.” (Ford’s History of Illinois, p. 252.)
60. Not a new witness is introduced; not a new fact is ascertained. No attempt is made to trace either Smith or Rigdon one step of the way over the three hundred miles of country between them. No attempt is made to show how Rigdon in Pittsburgh, heard of the boy Joe, whose fame for money digging extended throughout a quarter of the township of Manchester,* in central New York; or how he learned of the preacher Rigdon, who, as a Baptist preacher, was known for
*Manchester, Ontario county, adjoins Palmyra, Wayne county, and was part of the time the place of Smith’s residence.
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near twenty miles out of Pittsburgh, in southwestern Pennsylvania. None of these little particulars trouble the Governour in his attempt to blacken the fame of the Prophet, the easier to vindicate the crime of conniving at his murder.
61. Conjectures, of which he could not possibly know anything, which other men had for twenty years ransacked half the continent to find some evidence of, he simply asserts as though they were unquestionable facts.
62. Like most men who bear false witness, he has made his falsehood patent. The Book of Mormon does not contain “the history of the ten lost tribes,” as he asserts; as any one will see by reading the book; and whoever will assert such a falsehood, when the truth is so easily known, whether from carelessness or corruption, is not a safe historian, on disputed questions, of which he has no personal knowledge.
ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE MORMONS.
63. The anonymous author of the Illustrated History of the Mormons, though more just than most writers on that side, falls into the common and unsupported falsehood, by saying that Rigdon was a “compositor;” that is, a type setter, (p. 45) but without one word of evidence to justify the assertion.
64. The same author falls in with the general fame of the Spaulding story, without investigating it, and says, “Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon seem to have acted in concert in its concoction, from materials thus prepared for them.” (Illustrated History of the Mormons. p. 49.) This book was written in England, though published by Derby and Miller, Auburn, New York, and as it is not characterized with the usual virulence, possibly the author had only heard the general
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statement of the Spaulding story, without those details which utterly overthrow it.
65. In the same manner he is led to say that “anachronisms are frequent” in the Book of Mormon; (Illustrated History of Mormonism, p. 49;) though not a single one is pointed out, for the best reason in the world; none exists. This fact does not rest on testimony, but can be tested at any time by an examination of the book.
HOWE’S GREAT WEST.
66. Henry Howe published, at Cincinnati, in 1854, a “History of the Great West,” in which he revives the Spaulding story, with the theory that Rigdon first heard of Joseph Smith as a vagabond money digger, subsequent to 1827, when Rigdon was a Campbellite preacher, in Mentor, Ohio, and Smith resided near Palmyra, New York.
67. No evidence is offered that Rigdon had the Spaulding manuscript, or that he had ever heard of Smith. The only attempt to show either of these things possible, is the statement that “Rigdon was frequently absent.” (Great West, p. 337.)
68. As Rigdon did not go to Mentor till after Smith was engaged on the Book of Mormon, the suggestion that he there heard of him, and on the faith of his vagabond character, entrusted him with the commission of sole founder of a new religion, of which Rigdon was to come in as junior partner, after the first rugged paths were trod, comes too late.
69. And against the suggestion that Rigdon heard of him at all, till the publication of the Book of Mormon, in the newspapers, is the fact that Mentor, Ohio, is two hundred and thirty miles from Palmyra or Manchester, New York, and in the twentytwo years search which has been made for
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some evidence of a possible collusion between Smith and Rigdon, previous to the publication of the Book of Mormon, not a witness has been produced who could show that any person residing twenty miles from Smith ever heard of him till the annunciation, through the newspapers, of the publication of that book.
70. That Rigdon, as a Campbellite preacher at Mentor, was occasionally absent from home, is too probable to require any proof; but that that fact, equally true of every Christian minister, convicts him of stealing manuscripts to found a new religion on, or of dealing with vagrant money diggers, hundreds of miles away, is a new rule of evidence, to which all other Christian ministers will object.
71. The town of Mentor is only five miles from the town of Kirtland, and Rigdon was the minister of the Campbellite Churches in both towns, and after receiving the faith of the Latter Day Saints, remained at Kirtland till 1837; and till 1848 was prominently connected with all the publick discussions of that faith. Had he at any time previous to the publication of the Book of Mormon made a journey from Mentor to Palmyra, and stopped with Joseph long enough to commit to him the charge of founding a new religion, and the reconstruction of the Spaulding manuscript into an oracle of God, why has no one of the Cambellites about Mentor and Kirtland any knowledge of his going to Palmyra, or of his being absent on some unknown journey, long enough to have accomplished that work?
72. For twentytwo years, since the Spaulding story was first promulgated, as far as Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon have been preached, all Christendom has looked earnestly and with painful anxiety for some such proof, and have looked in vain. Had he made a single journey from Mentor,
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in which he could not be traced step by step, and his employment proved day by day, so as to show the impossibility of his having visited the Seer of Palmyra, that absence would have been announced, and proclaimed the triumph of his accusers.
73. It is obvious that Henry Howe had not investigated the matter at all, but only followed common fame, guessing his way through difficulties, which were apparent on the face of E. D. Howe’s History of Mormonism. His theory of the plagiarism, of the Book of Mormon, is built on the exploded work of E. D. Howe, altered, but not improved, by his own guessing.
FERRIS’ UTAH AND THE MORMONS.
74. Of all the writers who have given currrency to the Spaulding story, the most able and at the same time the most unscrupulous and corrupt, is Benjamin G. Ferris, late Secretary of Utah, author of a book entitled, “Utah and the Mormons.” Ferris not only repeats the old exploded lie, that Rigdon was a printer, but says that at the time Spaulding’s manuscript was in Patterson and Lambdin’s printing office, Rigdon “was in the employment of Patterson, and became so much interested in the ‘Manuscript Found’ as to copy it, ‘as he himself has frequently stated.’ ” (Utah and the Mormons, p. 52.)
75. Such unblushing falsehood it would be difficult elsewhere to find. At the date of Ferris’ publication, the Spaulding story had been twenty years published. Every effort in the power of man had been made to show the “Manuscript Found” in Rigdon’s possession, or where he might possibly have seen it, and so far in vain. Rigdon had presided over a
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Church of three thousand Latter Day Saints, in Pittsburgh; and in the anxiety to destroy his influence, the Rev. Mr. Williams, pastor of a Church in Pittsburgh, aided by the whole clergy, had published a work for the purpose of fastening this plagiarism on Rigdon; and not a witness could be found to say that Rigdon was a printer; not a witness that he was ever in Patterson and Lambdin’s office; not a witness that he was ever in Pittsburgh, while that printing office existed; and not a witness that he ever saw or heard of either Spaulding or his manuscript, previous to the publication of “Mormonism Unveiled,” in 1834.
76. But that is not the darkest feature in this allegation of Mr. Ferris. In saying that Rigdon “became so much interested in the ‘Manuscript Found’ as to copy it, ‘as he himself has frequently stated,’ ” including the last six words in quotations, as though he had copied them from some other writer, Ferris is guilty both of a known falsehood, and an unblushing forgery. (Utah and the Mormons, p. 52.)
77. No man on earth had ever so written. Ferris did not copy his quoted words from any other writer, and it is patent on the pages of his book that he had read and was familiar with those works, on this question, in which Rigdon and his friends have continually denied that Rigdon ever saw or heard of Spaulding, or his manuscript, earlier than 1834, and challenged the world to produce one word of proof against him.
78. Pursuing this course of falsehood, even when truth would seem to serve his purpose just as well, Ferris accounts for the meagerness of the evidence against Smith and Rigdon, by asserting the death of Patterson in 1826, four years before the publication of the Book of Mormon. (Utah and the Mormons, p. 52.)
79. Yet the Rev. S. Williams published, in the city of
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Pittsburgh, the residence of Patterson, in the year 1842, a pamphlet entitled, “Mormonism Exposed,” containing a certificate concerning this same Spaulding manuscript, signed by this same Robert Patterson, and dated April 2d, 1842. And John E. Page, then residing in Pittsburgh, in Apostolick charge of the Latter Day Saints, and abundantly able and disposed to expose Williams, if he introduced any false testimonies, published a pamphlet in reply, and admits Patterson’s certificate into his work without question. Patterson was living, and a prominent citizen of Pittsburgh sixteen years after Ferris writes him dead. And no writer, no man, before Ferris, said he was dead. Ferris is the original author of the falsehood. And this fact does not rest on the assumption of any man. If he had any authority, he has but to produce it. There is none.
80. But with his unscrupulous corruption, Ferris was too shrewd not to see that the theory which says that Rigdon heard of Smith’s fame as a money digger, three or four hundred miles away, and looked him up as a suitable person to employ, to found a new religion, was ridiculous; that some new invention was necessary; or, when passion was over, every sane man would reject the wicked impeachment.
81. Drawing upon his imagination alone, and asserting each point as though it was an unquestioned fact in history, Ferris says, “In the course of his wanderings, Smith met with Rigdon. These two men together conceived the idea of starting a system of religious imposture, commensurate with the popular credulity.
82. “Conjointly they possessed, in mercantile phrase, the requisite capital for such an adventure. Smith had cunning, plausible volubility, Seer stones, mysterious antiquities, and, withal, the prestige of success; Rigdon was versed in the
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lights and shadows of religious verbiage; had some literary pretensions; was a printer; and, above all, had a copy of Spaulding’s book.
83. “Which started the bright idea of the golden Bible, is not known; though, in all likelihood, the credit is due to Smith, as he ever after maintained the ascendency in the new hierarchy. After the plan had assumed a definite form in the minds of the originators, it was easy for Joseph, in his perambulations, to trace out and secure the original manuscript of Spaulding, to guard the intended scheme from exposure.” (Utah and the Mormons, pp. 55, 56.)
84. Thus, without spending one moment in inquiry, without even troubling himself to pick up such facts as were in his reach, much less inquiring for evidence, which twenty years of the most industrious research had failed to find, Ferris sits down in his armed chair, and on a half page of foolscap, demonstrates by his unsupported assertion, not only that Rigdon had a copy of the Spaulding manuscript, but that Smith, while hazing around with peep stones, and mineral rods, strayed off from Palmyra, three or four hundred miles, to Pittsburgh, to look up Rigdon as a partner; as tradition says, the head of a severed snake will look up his eliminated tail, which some mischievous boy has cut off and hidden in the most secret place; but that Smith absolutely traced up the original manuscript, and got possession of that also.
85. Surely, the millions of Christians who had anxiously waited twenty years for some scrap of evidence, that either Smith or Rigdon ever heard of the Spaulding manuscript previous to 1834, ought to be thankful to Ferris, for alleging all they wish to prove, and saving the necessity of evidence. Henceforth no one need trouble himself to prove that Rigdon obtained a copy of the manuscript, for any one can prove
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by Ferris’ falsehood that Smith had the original, without obligation to the copy.
86. Why two men, obscure as Smith and Rigdon, each entertaining the ambition to found a new religion, should curb their zeal, till blindly burrowing like the mole, through the three hundred miles of intervening country, they embraced each other; why the entire task of accomplishing the work should be put upon the most inefficient of the two; why their two minds were so perfectly agreed, that, while one secured a copy, the other secured the original of Spaulding’s manuscript, Mr. Ferris must tell; nobody else can.
87. But, why no other writer ever asserted this, why Ferris does not offer one word of proof in support of it, is very plain. Any body can tell that. It is because there is not a word of truth in it.
88. As if to test the gullability of his readers, and prove how far the Christian world would be satisfied with falsehoods which a schoolboy could detect, so they militated against the divine mission of Joseph Smith, Ferris takes pains to prove that Smith “came into the northern part of Pennsylvania, near the Susquehannah River, in which part his fatherinlaw resided,” and then, to show that Smith might by possibility have found Rigdon there, he adds, “Sidney Rigdon, it will also be recollected, resided in the State of Pennsylvania.” (Utah and the Mormons, p. 61.)
89. True, Rigdon did once reside in Pennsylvania, but it was the other side of the Alleghany mountains, and by the nearest road, meandering around the mountains and through their gorges, more than four hundred miles distant, and he had removed still further off into the State of Ohio, before Smith went into Pennsylvania at all. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 289.)
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90. Pursuing his investigations with unblushing knavery and consummate skill, Ferris rakes over every document he can find, whether forged or genuine, supplying every apparent lack by his own fruitful invention, and laying especial stress upon every ebullition of passion of any of the disciples of Joseph Smith, during a period of a quarter of a century, to impeach the moral characters of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon; and sums up, that by their enemies they were held “very much below par;” and that among themselves a petulent editor, on some disagreement, called Martin Harris a lackey; and that when Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer had some business connection with the set of men who expelled the Saints from Missouri, Rigdon accused them with being “connected with a gang of thieves, counterfeiters, liars and blacklegs, of the deepest die.” (Utah and the Mormons, pp. 68, 69.)
91. This is the same set of men who, in 1838, expelled the Latter Day Saints from Missouri, and in 1854 invaded Kansas, for the purpose of expelling the free State men; David R. Atchison, late member and President of the United States Senate, being the leader in both forays. And though Atchison’s men in either case stopped at no crime, it is certain that many men of the highest standing in the United States have had much more connection with them than Cowdery and Whitmer were accused of, in those hours of peril in which they were unfortunately separated from their brethren.
92. A fact worth all the rest is, that in all those changes which separated the early ministers of this persecuted faith, even when Joseph and many of his faithful brethren were in prison, and the dead bodies of others lying around unburied, and Cowdery and Whitmer in the camp of their persecutors, they still gave the same unvarying testimony of the divine authority of the dispensation and the Book of Mormon; both
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relating circumstantially, on oath, in a Missouri court faced and browbeaten by a Missouri mob, the fact of the exhibition of the plates to them according to their testimony in the Book of Mormon.
93. And Cowdery, under the same circumstances, knowing that he was cast out and hated by his brethren as a traitor, who had joined their enemies and imperiled their lives, testified, on his solemn oath, that Joseph and himself did receive the Priesthood on two different occasions, by the voice of God, and the hands of Angels; relating circumstantially the time and manner of it; knowing well, when he did so, that the Missourians would turn against him more bitterly than his brethren had, and that the best hope which remained for him, was to flee secretly for his life.
94. Though most of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon were, one time and another, separated from the Church, not one of them ever drew back from his testimony, or departed from the faith; and notwithstanding the violent hatred engendered by internal discord among brethren, which grew up against some of them at the time of their separation, they have all lived down scandal and reproach, and by their irreproachable lives have established an unimpeachable reputation for integrity and truth, both among Saints and Gentiles.
95. The reputation of Joseph, as a money digger, and a peep stone Seer, originated in falsehood, and has been kept up for the purpose of ridiculing his calling to the Prophetick office. The truth about it is, that as a day labourer he was employed at wages to dig, not for enchanted treasures, but for money, which tradition said some Spaniards had buried in the bank of the Susquehannah River. (Gunnison’s History of the Mormons, p. 92. Pratt’s Ancient American Records)
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96. The various jokes about money digging, which from this fact passed between him and his early associates, were industriously gathered up by Philastus Hulburt, duly embellished and made a part of Howe’s “History of Mormonism;” and the affidavits there accumulated, if they prove anything, prove only ignorance, superstition, and the most venial offences, of which the witnesses bring in themselves for the largest share, and leave the reader with the impression that if what they say of Smith is really true, he was rather guilty of an occasional practical joke on their superstition, than of any participation in it.
97. Nothing is more evident, notwithstanding the pains taken to conceal it, than that many of them believed Joseph had the plates, from which he professed to be translating; and one of the witnesses, Willard Chase, testifies that, notwithstanding Joseph’s anxiety to make his possession of the plates a secret, as many as twelve men did get to see them. (Howe’s History of Mormonism, p. 245.) And many of the witnesses who testify that he was not a man of truth, show, nevertheless, that they and others did credit him in matters which, to say the least of it, were a severe tax on one’s credulity.
98. The true test of any man’s character for truth is his power to produce conviction in the minds of those who know him. This power Joseph had in an eminent degree. So much is admitted by his accusers. One of their chief accusations was that his neighbours, during his Prophetick career, believed on his word alone things hardly believable at all. Never was an attempt to impeach witnesses less successful than this, of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. None of the old Prophets had better testimonies than Joseph and James.