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ARTICLE IX.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS.

THE WORD, OR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION AND SALVATION.*This volume, which is published in the best English style, comes to us from the author himself. According to his own description of himself—on the title page, which we give exactly, exclamation points and all, at the foot of this page--he is simply "a septuagenarian optimist;" but, from the "Testimonies, Extracts, Quotations, &c.," which the publishers have inserted between the cover and the first page of the book, we learn that he is a professor, the author of at least seventeen other volumes or pamphlets, and the instructor of various prominent personages, such as viscounts, generals, and officers of the Guards. The Queen is said to have expressed her approbation of his writings, and this approbation, we are assured by Her Majesty's Secretary, is owing "entirely to their intrinsic merit." The French Emperor, also, "has been a long time acquainted with " the author's name and talents" The other works, however, which the professor has prepared, are either dictionaries and grammars, or romances in French or English. At the age of seventy, he has undertaken to discuss one of the great subjects in the theological field, and, in undertaking it, has dedicated his views " to the faithfully evangelical and fervently Christian clergies, ministries, and laities of all kingdoms and nations." The new volume containing these views is, certainly, a remarkable one. It appears to us to indicate, very clearly, that the author is an "optimist," and that he is, also, a “septuagenarian." Perhaps, it may be regarded as indicating some other things of which some of his readers would speak with less favor, but we leave this point to be determined by them. Adverse criticism-beyond what the author calls " necessary corri

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* The Word! or Universal Redemption and Salvation: "Preordained before All Worlds." A more1 Evangelical, Philanthropic, and Christian Interpretation of the Almighty God's Sacred Promises of Infinite Mercy, Forgiveness, and Grace! Reverently submitted to Christendom, by GEORGE MARIN DE LA VOYE', a Septuagenarian Optimist. London: Whittaker & Co., and Trübner & Co. 1870. 8vo. pp. 320.

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genda"--does not seem likely to please him, or to be looked upon as, in any degree, just. We should be sorry, by making it, to be classed among those whom he styles "uncharitably-disposed readers," for we have, certainly, no intention of doing what he expects them to do--namely, to "pour upon him torrents of fanatical and bigoted maledictions with the utmost rancor of mistaken professional zeal." We would carefully avoid any suspicion, even, of this. In the line of necessary corrigenda, we think we might suggest a few points, were it not that the author intimates that he is "inspired." Precisely what he means by inspiration he does not define--he leaves the definition for a note which is to be published in another volume, whose appearance is promised when it becomes indispensable. But, so long as it is undefined, it may, of course, be such inspiration as excludes all suggestions from uninspired minds. We think it is better, therefore, to leave the question respecting the "corrigenda" undetermined, until the author's expected notes shall make this point clear. The lucidity of the style, the sharp conciseness of the sentences, and the plainness with which important points are set forth and determined will be seen from the following extract, which we take much pleasure in quoting. It has reference to the question why the first-born child of Eve was a fratricide, and must, we think, be regarded as quite exhaustive on that point. It reads as follows:-[the figures in this extract, and on the title page, refer to the annotations mentioned above.]

Here is another exceedingly material question, regarding a vastly important point, which enables us better still to establish our positive angelical identity as transmigrations, "by earthly incarnations" of those heavenly bodies of spirits and angels, which occupied and constituted, with myriads of others, still there, the kingdom of God.

Was not the first born child of Eve the grandson of God, not begotten, but created with Adam, in Adam, and consequently made in the image of the Father, after His own likeness?

At such an early and critical period of the population of the earth the smallest event, the most trifling circumstance, becomes highly worthy of notice, especially when it serves to demonstrate more forcibly the doubted primogenitive filiation of mankind.

And that well-defined filiation is all the more indispensable as we dive deeper into the sacred arcana of those most miraculous seven days of Genesis, introductory to the subsequent mundane eras, during which we hope to prove that the souls of the fallen angels and spirits first began, by Divine permission, their successive transitions into the material bodies of human beings.

A terrestrial Medium having been mercifully considered necessary by the Almighty (in gracious compliance to the all-sufficient mediation of Jesus Christ)

for the reception of the spiritual souls, no longer now spotless since their fall, Adam was intentionally formed from the dust' of the ground.

In this mortal state alone could those corrupted souls be redeemed through infinite grace; and that only after having undergone a succession of purgatorial worldly trials, by voluntary incarnations, more or less often repeated, according to their deserts and the boundless mercy of God.

The human body, therefore, of the first created man was "purely and completely earthly," because the Lord God, foreknowing that Adam would be the father of a countless number of generations to come, knew furthermore that each child born from that ordeal stock would receive a soul" at its birth already stained with sin (its real original sin) committed during its pristine state "in heaven," whence it had been but to justly driven.

It was also foreknown of God that the soul of Adam, which had been breathed by him in his nostrils, would return to himself again when Adam died. Not so the soul of Eve; not so the souls of Adam and Eve's generations! Adam's individual soul and body were both wholly and exclusively God's own -never meant to fare the general human fate. They were graciously brought into existence solely for the purpose of first spreading the preordained blessings of redeption and salvation, universally granted through the all-sufficient intercession and oblation of his well-beloved and only-begotten Son.

Excepting the soul Divine of Adam, consequently, every soul, angelic or spiritual,' that has been permitted by the Triune God to incarnate itself, voluntarily, for the sake of Christian purification and sanctification, during the incessant miracles of human generations, procreations, and nativities-and every soul that shall hereafter be permitted so to incarnate itself; until all have been incarnated, redeemed, brought to judgment, and finally saved,-shall continue to undergo (themselves consenting) these Christ-bought incarnations, as sinattainted angelic souls, waiting for judgment.*

We have humbly presumed to imagine that two' materially different means of human incarnations, having evidently been preferred by the Almighty God, when he set Adam asleep, for the creation of Eve, he had considered it essential that the souls of the two creatures He created, perfect as they were all in other respects, each, respectively, should not be perfectly the same, regarding their ethereal essence.

We cannot discard the excusable notion, which we entertained, prima facie, touching the counubial consanguinity, divinely meant to be understood as a “sacred. union of bodies," inseparably commingled for their lives, if not for ever, between those two supremely favored beings, so solemnly allied, actione verboque Dei.

The corporeal connection of Adam and Eve, created, brought together at their formation, married,' by their God and Maker, was undoubtedly to serve as a consecrated type, for the future enactment and observance of civil and ecclesiastical laws and rites.

Our principal intention, besides all this, is meanwhile to open your minds more and more convincingly to the existence of a mystical revelation, purporting that, in the extraordinary Divine and terrestrial endowments of our first parents, the Lord God had in view to contrive a suitable and satisfactory first ingress,' into this world for the souls of those condemned angels, whose gracious commutation of eternal chastisement into temporal ordeals, our adorable and infinitely com

passionate Saviour had obtained from His Father, the Omnipotent Dispenser of all mercies.

Adam and Eve were thence to be no other, from the first day of creation, but "unconscious Incarnations of accepted Representatives," mercifully authorized, through infinite grace; and entrusted by the Almighty Jehovah to the Divine Intercessor, aided by the Spirit of Truth,

Towards the preordained accomplishment of Universal Redemption and Salva tion.

After the perusal of this passage, we think our readers will appreciate and sympathize with the feeling of General Sir Charles W. Pasley, when, according to the "Testimonies" above referred to, he expresses the hope, that Professor De La Voye" will be appointed the Teacher of the Royal Children." Such simplicity of language and clearness of style must be very valuable elements in the education of English families, and, if Her Majesty should set the example by employing such an instructor, perhaps the way might be opened for this wide-spread influence. In our own country, we know of no position so favorable for the author, who fortunately is so far advanced in years and fame as probably not to desire a change of residence.

In reading over what we have written, we notice, with some mortification, that we have not stated the object and design of the volume. This, doubtless, should have been indicated at the outset, but we have been so much interested in the author himself and his style, that we must find our excuse in this fact. We trust that the author is enough of an optimist to feel that our notice of his book is a satisfactory one, notwithstanding our infelicitous omission to introduce this matter in its proper place. And even at the end-which is so inappropriate a place to speak of it—we scarcely know what to say. It requires six pages for the author himself, in his own concise style, to explain his design-or three pages, even if we exclude the astronomical and doctrinal observations, which he seems to consider important for a clear understanding of it. We should despair of being as brief as he is, and we have hardly space enough at command to give more than six pages to this matter. On reflection, therefore, we have thought it best to recommend to our readers, in case they desire a clear and full appreciation of the object of the work, to purchase the volume for themselves, and attentively read the author's own remarks in his introduction. To those who do not have this desire, but only a wish to know, in one word, what the aim of the writer is, the title is sufficient, for it shows that he attempts to prove

universal salvation to have been "divinely provided for before all worlds," and that the Scriptures, when fairly interpreted, declare this to be the fact. We only add, in closing, that the publication of the proposed volume of notes, at the earliest practical moment, is greatly to be desired if everything in the present volume is to be accepted intelligently by "pious readers of all persuasions."

ECCLESIA: a series of Essays on Church Problems, is an inviting volume, representing the views of a number of writers of the Congregational body in England. Since the publication of the now well known Essays and Reviews, several volumes have been issued upon substantially the same plan, consisting of a series of independent treatises, for which the authors were severally responsible. Thus two, we ought rather to say three, series of essays in reply to the original Essays and Reviews were speedily reproduced by different representative persons. Several volumes of a series, under the title of "Tracts for the Day," have been edited by Mr. Orby Shipley, in the interest of the Ritualistic party. Latest, but not by any means the least able, there appear in the field the representatives of the free churches of Great Britain. The volume which they have published, though issued but a few months, has already enforced the respect and will command the thoughtful consideration of many of the leading minds of the established church. It cannot fail to do much for the cause of the Dissenters-if in no other way, at least by furnishing the amplest evidence that in point of learning and culture, they are not behind their co-religionists, while in respect of a catholic and comprehensive spirit, they are very greatly in advance of them. Indeed, the sentiment which at no distant day is to contest the destinies of the British Empire, so far as it will be a Christian sentiment, is more perfectly represented by the leading writers in this volume, than it is by any of the leading parties in the Church of England.

The interest and value of this volume is by no means limited to the people of Great Britain. One or two of the topics only have a special or local application, but the discussion of these is scarcely less interesting or important to Englishmen than it is to AmeriThe remaining topics are of common interest to both. It

cans.

* Ecclesia; Church Problems considered in a series of Essays. Edited by HENRY ROBERT REYNOLDS, D. D. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row. 1870.

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