Metadata
Title
Gilbert Tennent sermons 15, "De Federe Nature" (On the nature of the covenant), 1744
Date
1744/1758
Digital Identifier
PHS.TennentSermons015
Description
Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) was an Irish-American Presbyterian clergyman, and one of the leaders of the Great Awakening.
This sermon follows "De federe operum (On the covenant of works)." Tennent begins with the following two Bible verses:
Hosea 6:7, "But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me."
Genesis 2:16-17, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The sermon presents a very detailed explication of the covenant of nature that God made with Adam, sometimes called the Adamic covenant, based on Adam's innocence and obedience, with but one order given to him: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and have his eyes opened to the good that he would lose, and the evil that he would incur by disobedience, this being all the troubles that have plagued man since. Rescue comes with Christ as redeemer through the Second Covenant, but one's everyday effort toward righteousness must not slacken.
From dates noted on the manuscript, it appears Tennent wrote the sermon in 1744, and delivered it again in 1747, 1752, and 1758.
This sermon follows "De federe operum (On the covenant of works)." Tennent begins with the following two Bible verses:
Hosea 6:7, "But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me."
Genesis 2:16-17, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The sermon presents a very detailed explication of the covenant of nature that God made with Adam, sometimes called the Adamic covenant, based on Adam's innocence and obedience, with but one order given to him: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and have his eyes opened to the good that he would lose, and the evil that he would incur by disobedience, this being all the troubles that have plagued man since. Rescue comes with Christ as redeemer through the Second Covenant, but one's everyday effort toward righteousness must not slacken.
From dates noted on the manuscript, it appears Tennent wrote the sermon in 1744, and delivered it again in 1747, 1752, and 1758.
Subject
Place
Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
Congregation
Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA
Holding Institution
Presbyterian Historical Society
Extent
20 pages
Format (Digital)
tiff
Rights
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
Language
eng
Type
Text
Abstract
De Federe Natura (on the Covenant of Nature) discusses the earliest covenant, when Adam was innocent (also called the Covenant of Life by the Westminster Assembly of Divines), a mutual agreement made between God and Adam and considered a legal covenant, requiring absolute obedience by Adam, who was capable early on of agreeing to a covenant by silence but with the moral law written on his heart, and to abstinence from a specific action, tasting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Obedience would mean the continuance of life -- in Eden? Or where?. Because Adam owed all to God, failure to comply would be punishable by death. Because Adam was the first parent, the threat extends to Adam's posterity until the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, born without sin, redeems man by His sacrifice, His rebirth and His mediation.
Adam's life at first a union of soul and body in innocence; the union of the spiritual and the soul in righteousness, enough to know and love God; the beginning of eternal life in the enjoyment of Tree of Life in the paradise Adam then knew. Further discussion follows of complexities and explication of the nature of the Covenant, the level of perfection required of it, and whether it could be maintained in its then form, in a kind of perpetual probation, or would it become a Law? what of the status of a wife and children? After the Fall would come the Covenant of Grace, which, tho freely offered, man in the grip of Sin would have to decide whether to agree to.
Adam's life at first a union of soul and body in innocence; the union of the spiritual and the soul in righteousness, enough to know and love God; the beginning of eternal life in the enjoyment of Tree of Life in the paradise Adam then knew. Further discussion follows of complexities and explication of the nature of the Covenant, the level of perfection required of it, and whether it could be maintained in its then form, in a kind of perpetual probation, or would it become a Law? what of the status of a wife and children? After the Fall would come the Covenant of Grace, which, tho freely offered, man in the grip of Sin would have to decide whether to agree to.
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