of the ways just mentioned, even though he had committed himself to
M. Babinet's dire belief.

But what is the trivial, temporal accident of the wiping out of a planet
and its inhabitants to the infinite catastrophe which shall establish a
mighty world of eternal despair? And which is it most desirable for
mankind to have disproved or weakened, the grounds of the threat of M.
Babinet, or those of the other infinitely more terrible comminations, so
far as they rest on the authority of Jonathan Edwards?

The writer of this paper had been long engaged in the study of the
writings of Edwards, with reference to the essay he had in contemplation,
when, on speaking of the subject to a very distinguished orthodox divine,
this gentleman mentioned the existence of a manuscript of Edwards which
had been held back from the public on account of some opinions or
tendencies it contained, or was suspected of containing "High Arianism"
was the exact expression he used with reference to it. On relating this
fact to an illustrious man of science, whose name is best known to
botanists, but is justly held in great honor by the orthodox body to
which he belongs, it appeared that he, too, had heard of such a
manuscript, and the questionable doctrine associated with it in his
memory was Sabellianism. It was of course proper in the writer of an
essay on Jonathan Edwards to mention the alleged existence of such a
manuscript, with reference to which the same caution seemed to have been
exercised as that which led, the editor of his collected works to
suppress the language Edwards had used about children.

This mention led to a friendly correspondence between the writer and one
of the professors in the theological school at Andover, and finally to
the publication of a brief essay, which, for some reason, had been
withheld from publication for more than a century. Its title is
"Observations concerning the Scripture OEconomy of the Trinity and
Covenant of Redemption. By Jonathan Edwards." It contains thirty-six
pages and a half, each small page having about two hundred words. The
pages before the reader will be found to average about three hundred and
twenty-five words. An introduction and an appendix by the editor,
Professor Egbert C. Smyth, swell the contents to nearly a hundred pages,
but these additions, and the circumstance that it is bound in boards,
must not lead us to overlook the fact that the little volume is nothing
more than