Pascal Denault > Quotes

“The promises of the Old Covenant were preceded by an “if” that made them conditional on man’s obedience, while the promises of the New Covenant were marked by a divine monergism:”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“There were, however, important disagreements regarding the doctrine of the church as well as that of baptism. These two doctrines could not be considered in isolation because they had basic theological implications. These implications are what we call covenant theology. The fact that the Puritans had different views on the church and on baptism is the result of a different way of understanding biblical covenants.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“The genealogical principle of the Abrahamic Covenant has been brought to its climactic fruition. There is no longer any reason to continue it as a covenant principle since “the Seed” has come into the world. Christ is the last physical seed in Abraham’s covenant line to whom the promises were made. There is no other physical seed beyond Christ to whom these promises are directed.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“By rejecting the notion of a single covenant of grace under two administrations, the Baptists were in fact rejecting only half of this concept; they accepted, as we have previously seen, the notion of a single covenant of grace in both testaments, but they refused the idea of the two administrations. For the Baptists, there was only one covenant of grace which was revealed from the Fall in a progressive way until its full revelation and conclusion in the new covenant. This model is clearly expressed in Chapter 7, paragraph 3, of the 1689 Confession: “This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“Yet some Particular Baptists helpfully clarified that what the old covenant itself did offer upon the condition of works was life and blessing in Canaan.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“John Owen, who states, “[…] we may consider that Scripture does plainly and expressly make mention of two testaments, or covenants, and distinguish between them in such a way, that what is spoken can hardly be accommodated to a twofold administration of the same covenant.”115”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“This, then, is one main difference of these two covenants, -that the Lord did in the old only require the condition; now, in the new, he will also effect it in all the federates, to whom this covenant is extended.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“It would be difficult to exaggerate the size of the challenge that the Baptists were up against: contesting the majority understanding of the covenant of grace by insisting on the discontinuity between the biblical covenants while simultaneously disassociating themselves from the Socinians, Anabaptists, and Arminians.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“After this research, it is difficult for us to imagine how the Presbyterian federalism would have been possible without the ecclesio-political context in which it was developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We believe this federalism is largely the result of the intersection between a good soteriology and a bad ecclesiology. In other words, the reformers had to reconcile the biblical gospel with a national church model inherited from the Christendom of the Middle Ages. Indeed, the paedobaptist covenant theology fit perfectly this incongruity. Intolerance, sometimes violent, toward those who rejected both the paedobaptist practice and doctrine indicates a great difficulty in questioning the foundation of Reformed theology.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“With many references to original sources in the seventeenth century, he shows that the Presbyterian concept of the covenant of grace relies upon a substance/administration hermeneutic which leads to the “one covenant under two administrations (OT/NT)” structure. This structure allows the Presbyterian to transfer the organic element of “believers and their seed” from the Abrahamic/Sinai Covenant administration into the new covenant administration, thus allowing a mixed church of believers and unbelievers as well as infant”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“If this is the case, Calvin then makes a distinction that will be essential to Baptist theology: that the covenant of grace does not form part of the substance of the old covenant even if it was revealed during its administration.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“The Abrahamic, Sinaitic, and Davidic covenants were seen only as different administrations of the covenant of grace revealed to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“The Abrahamic covenant, the Sinaitic covenant, and the Davidic covenant were not the covenant of grace, nor administrations of it; however, the covenant of grace was revealed under these various covenants. The Epistle to the Hebrews seems to sanction this understanding, particularly this passage: “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Heb. 9:15).”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“If Westminster federalism can be summarized as “one covenant under two administrations,” that of the 1689 would be, “one covenant revealed progressively and concluded formally under the new covenant.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“The new covenant is made with them alone who effectually and eventually are made partakers of the grace of it. “This is the covenant that I will make with them… I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,” etc. Those with whom the old covenant was made were all of them actual partakers of the benefits of it; and if they are not so with whom the new is made, it comes short of the old in efficacy, and may be utterly frustrated. Neither does the indefinite proposal of the terms of the covenant prove that the covenant is made with them, or any of them, who enjoy not the benefits of it. Indeed this is the excellence of this covenant, and so it is here declared, that it does effectually communicate all the grace and mercy contained in it to all and every one with whom it is made; with whomsoever it is made, his sins are pardoned.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“Before Christ, the Covenant of Grace was announced; after Christ, it was decreed”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“of the sacraments. It is in our doctrine of the church.” 2”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“In examining the covenant of grace, two aspects of it had to be brought out: its substance and its circumstance (or administration”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“baptism corresponding to circumcision. Further, he shows that the Reformed Baptist construction of the covenant of grace was established by a “revealed/concluded” (promise/fulfillment) structure, progressively revealed in the OT by “the covenants of the promise” and concluded in the NT by the institution of the new covenant as the promise of the covenant of grace fulfilled. This is the primary difference between the covenant theologies of the Westminster Confession and the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“Let us review. Because no man has been saved in any way other than through the grace of God since the fall, the Reformed considered that there had been only one covenant of grace in the whole history of redemption. The covenant of grace was the substance by which seventeenth-century theologians united the Bible, from whence came their paradigm: one covenant under several administrations. In establishing a distinction between the internal substance and the external administration of the covenant of grace, the Presbyterians managed to maintain the unity of this covenant while admitting a certain disparity between”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“The Socinians were among the main adversaries of Reformed theology. Their understanding of the way the Old and New Testaments related to one another made them the “hyper-dispensationalists” of their time. For”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“This distinction (revealed/concluded) summarized the difference between the covenant of grace in the Old Testament and the covenant of grace in the New Testament. In the Old, it was revealed; in the New, it was concluded (“fully revealed,” according to the expression of the 1689). John Owen comes to exactly the same understanding in his exegesis of Hebrews 8:6.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“Westminster federalism can be summarized as “one covenant under two administrations,” that of the 1689 would be, “one covenant revealed progressively and concluded formally under the new covenant.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“We have already mentioned several times the Presbyterian paradigm of the covenant of grace which consists in seeing only one covenant administered respectively by the old and new covenants.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“This progressive revelation started with Adam, proceeded to Noah, then continued with Abraham and his descendants. Thus, the Baptists could state that the old covenant did not give salvation, all the while affirming that salvation was given under the old covenant.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“the different administrations. What is more, by separating the substance and administration, the paedobaptists introduced a notion of mixed nature within the covenant of grace by which they explained that “unconverted” people could be in the covenant without taking part in its substance, yet being hermetically contained in its administration. Finally, in considering the old and new covenants simply as administrations of the same covenant by insisting on the identity of their substance, the paedobaptists perpetuated a principle given to Abraham: “I will be your God and the God of your posterity.” This principle allowed the paedobaptists to consider their children as members of the covenant of grace and to justify a legitimate place for them—that of the unregenerate who participate nevertheless in the covenant of grace and who receive the seal: formerly circumcision, now baptism. This understanding of the covenant of grace was very widespread amongst the Reformed theologians of the seventeenth century.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“The Baptists believed that before the arrival of the new covenant, the covenant of grace was not formally given, but only announced and promised (revealed). This distinction is fundamental to the federalism of the 1689 Confession. Nehemiah Coxe, the likely editor of this confession of faith, firmly maintains this distinction between the revelation and the administration:”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“This understanding can be summarized in this way: salvation was given under the old covenant, but not by virtue of the old covenant; during the time period of the old covenant, but not by the old covenant.”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism

“Let us also think of the appendix that the Baptists joined to the publication of the Second London Confession of Faith where, several times, they express their desire to maintain good relations with the paedobaptists regardless of their divergences of opinion on the question of baptism:”
― Pascal Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology: A Comparison Between Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist and Paedobaptist Federalism