OCR Text |
Show i Jashen, (otthe upright,) because, what he wrote was generally 'deemed a true and authentic account of all the events whfc& had then ^happened. *©nce more, the several books of Solomon, mentioned in 1 Kings iv. 32, 33, were no part of the canonical Scriptures. His " three thousand proverbs " were perhaps only spoken.,not committed to -writing. His " Songs," which were one thousand and five in number, were, in all -probability, his juvenile compositioMS:; and his universal history of vegetables, and that of animals of all kinds, belonged to philosophy. It was not necessary for every one to be acquainted with them ; and though the loss of them is to be deplored, yet it is a loss which only the busy investigators of nature have cause to lament. W e may therefore conclude, that, if any books of the Did Testament seem to be wanting in *our present canon, they are either such as le unobserved, under other denominations, or such as never were accounted "canonical, such as contained no points essential to the salvation «of man, and of which w e may safely live ignorant feere, and for which w e shall never be responsible hereafter. Eq aally satisfac- -tory is the evidence to show, that none of the books of the N ew Testament have at any time been lost, asmay be seen on a referenceto Edward's Discourse on tire Authority ,Style, and Perfection of the Old and N e w Testament, vol. III., p. 451, &c.; and Jones on the Canon of the N e w Testament, vol. I., p. 130,&c The remaining paragraphs of ** Calumny Refuted " are, in the judgment of all wh©*n I have met with, so very mystical, sophistical, and dogmatical; and exhibit so much quibbling, and shuffling, and manceuvring *, and contain so much that is irrelevant, malignant, and insolent, without a single instance of the promised refutation % that it is utterly unworthy of an argumentative reply. I therefore close this Address, under a conviction, that it is manifest to you, as it is to me, that I have •no reason to retract a single sentiment that I have written as an antidote to Mormonism. And I a m also assured, that, if you continue t© pay a steady and prayerful attention to the genuine Gospel of C H R I S T , which began to be preached at J E R U S A L E M , {Luke xxiv. 47,) you will easily see the folly and wickedness ©f that spurious gospel of A N T I C H R I S T , which feegan to be preached in A M E R I C A* From your devoted Servant, For Jesus' sake, ROBERT HEYS. V.S.-.Nothing more need be expected from me, in reply to anything that Mr. Taylor may write, unless he can reason with fairness, and keep to the question of Mormonism, the claims of which hare yet yy to be proved-.It. H. Douglas, November 4, 1840. |