The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

by Pascal Denault

In any case, it is undeniable that the paedobaptists practised paedobaptism on the basis of a covenant where baptism did not exist.142 The only reason that explains this hermeneutic—questionable to the Baptists—is the Presbyterian model of the covenant of grace. This model had a major hermeneutical impact since it logically led to the following conclusion: if the covenant of grace was administered respectively by the old and the new covenants, these defined the nature and essence of the covenant of grace. This logic explains the intertwining of the Old and New Testaments in the paedobaptist hermeneutic. Consequently, there is no longer any reason to define the terms and the ordinances of the new covenant based solely on the elements that are proper to it.