Beede, Thomas. The Allegory of the Olive Tree, or the Abrahamic Covenant not Disannulled. A Discourse. Amherst: Printed by E. Boylston, 1817. First Edition. [12253]
Removed, no wrapper, 9 x 5 3/4 inches, 28 pages. Good. Pamphlet.
The text is Romans 11: 16-18. "If the root be holy, so are the branches...&c."
I "shall endeavour to prove that the Christian church is but a continuation of the Abrahamic church; that the covenant made with Abraham is not disannulled; and consequently that the blessings and privileges of that covenant, so far as they relate to spiritual things, are now valid and good to christians, in the same manner that they were to Abraham and his seed." - p. 5.
He distinguishes between the Abrahamic and the Mosaic covenants, saying that the latter is passed away, but that the christian church is the continuation of the former. Our author applies this to infant baptism, in support of that practice.
The final page has two hymns by Dr. Watts, "to be committed to memory."
Rev. Thomas Beede (1771-1848), b. Fremont, New Hampshire; d. Farmington, Maine. Rev. Beede graduated at Harvard College (1798), taught school in various places, and in 1803 was ordained over the Congregational Church in Wilton, New Hampshire. He was of Unitarian views and was a practicing Freemason. From 1818 to 1825 he was the chaplain of the State Legislature. In 1829 he resigned his charge and in 1832 he moved to Farmington, Maine.
