At the beginning of the human race that old serpent led humanity away from the word of the law, and thus from the covenant of creation by a false interpretation. . . . The summary of this law shining forth in the image of God was that he love the Lord his God with all his heart . . . and as a testimony of this love refrain from eating from the one tree.
Caspar Olevianus, De substantia, 2.27; Geneva, 1585.
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Dr Clark
“from the word of the law and thus from the covenant of creation”.
I take this to mean that the word of the law was somehow included/embedded in the covenant of creation.
Could you kindly say more about the timing and content (and participants and consequences) of the covenant of creation; this has always puzzled me.
I had also always taken the Adamic covenant of works to be the command about the tree, but Olevianus seems to suggest that law or works required of man was to love God – something much broader therefore than just the tree command. I think I have not therefore seen the covenants of works aright either. Presumably it came into effect when Adam was created but was it made explicit or left implicit?