Excerpt from A Portraiture of Mormonism, or Animadversions on the Doctrines and Pretensions of the Latter-Day Saints: A Review of the History and Contents of the Book of Mormon; And a Sketch of the Career of Joseph Smith, and Various Other Notorious Fanatics and Impostors The divine founder of the Christian Religion had scarely left the Earth, before Heresies of various kinds began to creep into the church; and individuals, whose doctrines partook more of the nature of Infidelity than of the pure and sublime truths of the Gospel, dressed themselves in the garb of Christianity, in order to pro pagate the more effectually their pernicious principles, and enhance their own temporal power, fame, and wealth. The chief of these consisted of persons who pretended to be possessed of superhuman powers, and the chosen instruments, in the hands of the Almighty, for bringing about some great and important work, generally teaching that the scriptures were insufficient to inform those who read them the way of salvation, and consequently the necessity of other communications being received from the supreme majesty of heaven, which communications were to be made through the medium of themselves. From that time to the present. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.