The Covenant Doctrine of the “Fathers of the Secession” (1)

At the beginning of that reformation in the Netherlands, the fathers of the Secession of 1834 -- Hendrik deCock, Simon VanVelzen, Anthony Brummelkamp, and perhaps others -- were agreed that election governs the covenant of grace. They differed in other respects, especially whether children of unbelieving members of the congregation should be baptized and concerning the meaning of the phrase "sanctified in Christ" in the first question of the Baptism form. But with one voice they confessed that...