OCR Text |
Show 5 was not intended t&, supply merely to any particular part of the word of God, but to every part, both to that which he spake unto the fathers by the prophets, and also that which he spake unto the apostles by his Son. The language of Godf., as it appears in DeuLjv. 2, is this :-4t Ye shall not add unto the word which i C O M M A N D you, & c , (he does not say the word which I H A V E C O M M A N D E D , but the word which I C O M M A N D , ) a mode of expression which evidently shows, that the divine prohibition was intended to apply to* all the succesive vevelations o / G W , both to those which he then was giving,. and to those of former ages, which were then on record, and also to those of succeeding ages, until the days of the apostles, of Jesus Christ, which days St. Paul represented as being the- B A S T days, saying,. " God bath in these L A S T days spoken unto« us by his Son," Heb. i. 2. Observe,.the last days which are* here mentioned by St. Paul, are not the days of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, who are impiously held up by the ministers of Mormonism as apostles of Jesus Christ! but the days which were present io St. Paulweve intended, and'to which he applied the word " T H E S E , " - - " T H E S E L A S T D A Y S , " from whicfo it is evident that the days of the -primitive apostles were i he-last days of the period in which God intended to-speak to men; for the purpose of giving revelations j or, in other words, they-were the last days of the seventy prophetic weeks,., when, ac«~ cording to the prophet Daniel, God hao?determined'to; " SEAL, TOP T H E VISION A N D P R O P H E C Y . " Dan. ix. 24. Here I would observe, that,, according to the most eraine?it critics, the Hebrew of the words " to seafc up," signifies " to finish or complete" and that in this place it means " to put an end to* the necessity of any further revelations,, by completing the* canon of the Scriptures.'"' Also that,, as things are frequently sealed in order to their svewritys, so the preservationjjf the Divine Records and Oracles, included' in both Testaments, may be also here intended by the expression." So then, God has not only completed the canon of the Scriptures, but he has also provided against any portion of them being lost. As there are some books cited or referred to, in the Old and N e w Testaments, which are not now extant, it has been objected that some of those books are now wanting, which were once constituent parts of the Scriptures. A little consideration* however, will suffice to show that this objection is utterly destitute of foundation, and that none of the books which are accounted sacred by the Jews and Christians, as having been " given by inspiration of God," ever were or could be lost ; and, consequently, that no sacred or inspired writing is n ow wanting to complete the canon of Scripture. In the first place,it would be very unsuitable to the ordinary conduct of Divine Providence, to suffer a book, written under |