Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.--Peter, James and John--not as mortal men, but as ministering angels, sent from heaven for the purpose--gave the Melchizedek Priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery; and prior to the coming of that Priesthood, they received the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist, also acting as an angel. The exact date of the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood is not given in the Church records, but the event must have taken place between May 15, 1829, when the Aaronic Priesthood was conferred upon Joseph and Oliver, and April 6, 1830, the date of the Church's organization, when they were sustained, respectively, as the First and Second Elders thereof. Spirits Foreordained.--In view of the fact that these ordinations were subsequent to the Prophet's vision, in the spring of 1820, when the Father and the Son appeared to him, some have found it difficult to interpret the divine declaration, that no man without the Melchizedek Priesthood "can see the face of God, even the Father, and live." (D&C 84:19-22.) But the problem is easy of solution, in the light of the Prophet's teachings. Did he not give the key to it when he said that certain men, called to minister to the inhabitants of this world, were ordained to that very purpose before the world was? (Compendium, p. 285.) I have already cited the examples of Abraham and Jeremiah, who were "chosen" and "ordained" before they were born. That Joseph Smith was likewise preordained, seems to me a necessary inference, in view of the facts presented. For if no man without the Melchizedek Priesthood can see the face of God the Father and live, and Joseph Smith, nine years before he received either of the Priesthoods from those heavenly messengers, looked upon the faces of both the Father and the Son and survived, it indicates, in accordance with his own statement and the examples given, that certain spirits are ordained to certain callings before they tabernacle in the flesh, and that he himself held the Melchizedek Priesthood when he saw the face of God at the opening of the last gospel dispensation. An ordination in the flesh, after an ordination in the spirit, seems perfectly consistent; for the body was not present when the spirit was ordained, and it is the soul, spirit and body, that God is dealing with and acting through, in this stage of existence. That supplemental ordinations are sometimes in order, is evident from the fact that Joseph and Oliver ordained each other, after they had been ordained by the angel, or angels; and that, too, by divine commandment.--("Pearl of Great Price,"--"Writings of Joseph Smith," 2:71.)