ectypal.net

The term “covenant of works” was not used by Augustine, but the picture he presented of the divine arrangement with Adam in Eden before the fall contained all the ingredients of such a covenant as later portrayed by the “covenant theologians.” It was a bilateral arrangement whereby the promise of a “rise to better things” would result from exercising the “stewardship of righteousness, and death would be the consequence of disobedience. Furthermore, this law or covenant was not only given verbally, but was an expression of the absolute and unchangeable eternal law which was “stamped upon our minds. There was therefore continuity between the law given in Eden and that given on Sinai. Both were expressions of the eternal law. The “more explicit” giving of the Edenic covenant at Sinai was necessary due to the corruption of sin.