Mormon History
Christendom is Babylon - 1845
Times and Seasons, volume 6, Nauvoo, Illinois, Feb 15, 1845, p.810-811.
The Church of England seems to be in exceeding tribulation. A letter from the Bishop of Exeter, on the 11th of November last, addressed to the clergy of his diocese on the subject of the observance of the rubric, has caused a great sensation. Among other heterodoxies we see stated, that some of the English Divines, in repeating the creed, use the word blessed when they repeat the phrase 'born of the Virgin Mary,' and an arch deacon, Wilberforce, has said that the use of the material cross is proper. This, says this divine, as well as a publication called the Ecclesiologist, ‘(is the true protection) of Christians. They are never so safe as under it. The graves in a church yard and the cottages in a village, cluster around it in security.' Mr. Ward. of Baliol College, Oxford, has recently published a tract called the Ideal of a Christian Church. In this, he says boldly `in subscribing to the articles, (I renounce no one Roman doctrine).' Mr. Ward was summoned before the authorities of Oxford to explain his meaning. His defence was that his name was not on the title page of the work. (Gazette).
So the church militant, in addition to the breach of Puseyism, begins to show signs of woe. We have heard, by the bye, that some wise clergymen of the said church, petitioned his holiness the Pope, for an ordination under his gracious hand, but the ‘head of catholicity,' informed him that he must renounce his heresy first. Now, the substance, or more properly the want of substance, in the sectarian world is, that God is not in all their ways, and so every man goes his own way.
The present (christian world) exists and continues by (division). The MYSTERY of Babylon the great, is mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, and it needs no prophetic vision, to unravel such mysteries. The old church is the mother, and the protestants are the lewd daughters. Alas! alas! what doctrine, what principle, or what scheme, in all christendom, has produced the apostolic union? What prayers, what devotion, or what faith, ‘since the fathers have fallen asleep,' has opened the heavens; has brought men into the presence of God; and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to an innumerable company of angels? The answer is, not any: `There is none in all christendom that doeth good; no, not one. To be sure they love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues. They wear soft raiment, and gold chains, but the prayers of the poor, steeped in tears, are bottled up in heaven, as a testimony against them, and they cannot escape the due demerits of their hypocrisy.
All kingdoms but Daniel's set up in the last days, must break to pieces. So success to the (divisions of christians): they will help hasten the latter-day glory. God and Mormonism forever!