“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.”