Since both groups are under the preaching, the former approach is correct. His ability to cut through the widely accepted covenant automatism, held to even by many of the Second Reformation, is perhaps due to his close contact with the English Puritans. Koelman was wary of liturgical forms, a typically Puritan reaction, and he must have had great difficulty with the Form for Baptism. His consistent view on covenant holiness as being only of an external nature was well ahead of its time. He sternly taught the necessity of learning one's misery from the Law before one could come to salvation in Christ.
Ministers just jabber away.
Never in our life have we seen it like this, wherever we have lived or preached the gospel, that they leave the church to go home, yes, even to go to the coffee house. This did make it necessary for him to maintain the external holiness approach. This work is now, for the first time, available in English as The Christian's Reasonable Service . With respect to the matter at hand, Brakel writes, One must also consider them to be true partakers and children of the covenant as they grow older, until they show by their deeds that they are unfaithful to the covenant and thus are no partakers of its promises. On the other hand, to say that Kuyper's views accord with those of Brakel, even at this point, is absolutely incorrect.