"Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant." Luke 19: 22. We now purpose to show by the Book of Mormon that the devil is the foundation of the Mormon church. "And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the foundation of a great church. And the angel said unto me, Behold, the foundation of a church, which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them, and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity. And it came to pass that I beheld this great and abominable church; and I saw the devil that he was the foundation of it. And I also saw gold and silver, and silks and scarlets, and fine twined linen, and all manner of precious clothing; and I saw many harlots."—B. of M., pp. 20, 100–103.
All Mormons hold that this great and abominable church is the Roman Catholic ecclesia. It is a fact however that the Roman Catholic and the Mormon churches are built upon the same foundation. To the church in Pergamos the Lord said, "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." Rev. 2: 15. In order to understand what was in the Nicolaitan doctrine it is only necessary to analyze the term. It is a compound term from nicho and laitos. Nicho, from the root niche, means to get the ascendency. Laitos is simply the people. We have, hence, in that word or doctrine, what is known in the ecclesiastical world as the clergy and laity. It is there alone that we find a class that hold the ascendency, and talk of the people as the laity. There were some in the apostles' day that were seeking in the spirit of Diotrophes, to get the ascendency, that they
