Some have noted that the Belgic Confession says very little about the covenant(s), at least explicitly. The only place the Confession directly mentions the word "covenant" is once in Article 34 on baptism. In the 1559 French Confession (upon which the Belgic was largely modeled), the word is never even mentioned once.
In the other writings of Guido (or Guy) de Bres, a similar pattern emerges. His 1558 polemic against the Romanists, La baston de la foy Chrestienne (The Staff of the Christian Faith) does not appear to mention the word "covenant" at all -- not too surprising since it is, for the most part, a collection of quotations from the church fathers and Scripture. De Bres' 1565 book against the Anabaptists, La racine, source et fondement des Anabaptistes (The Root, Source and Foundation of the Anabaptists) follows the pattern of the Belgic Confession. Though de Bres discusses topics where one might think that the concept of covenant would be theologically fruitful (i.e. Christ's mediatorial work), the only place he explicitly mentions it is in the very large section defending infant baptism.
About half way through that section, he is emphasizing that there is one covenant of grace running from Abraham to the New Testament church. One of the ways that he does that is by comparing the signs of the covenant in the Old and New Testaments, circumcision and baptism. De Bres gives a table comparing the promises of the Old and New Testaments -- a comparison of the covenant made with Abraham and the covenant made with Christians today. De Bres says that this concerns the chief part of the Christian religion ("touchant la principale partie de la religion") -- something the Anabaptists could not get straight. Here is the table of de Bres:
De Bres’ Comparison of the
Covenant of Grace
From La racine,
pp.622-623
Abraham
God is rich and all sufficient towards Abraham –
Gen. 15:1
God is the God of Abraham and his children –
Gen. 17:7.
Abraham must be blameless before God – Gen.
17:1.
God has promised the Messiah and Saviour to
Abraham – Gen. 22:18
In the covenant, old and young alike were
circumcised – Gen. 17:12.
In due time, the little children were taught –
Gen. 18:19.
Christians
God is rich and all sufficient towards
Christians – Eph. 2:4, Col. 2:3, Rom. 1:12.
God is also our God and the God of our children
– Acts 2:39.
We must be entirely blameless before God – Col.
1:10, Phil. 2:15.
God has given us the Saviour and Messiah – Rom.
8:32.
In the Church, old and young alike are baptized
– Acts 2:41, 16:15.
6. In
due time, the little children are taught – Eph.6:4.
It may be relevant that La racine was written in 1565, some four years after the Belgic Confession. De Bres may have been developing in his understanding of covenant theology -- there are certainly more nuances in La racine than in the Confession (to be expected in a book of over 900 pages). However, if he was developing, the concept was not yet being explicitly worked out beyond its significance for the sacrament of baptism. That was taking place further east, in the Palatinate.
