God of the Covenant

Adriaan C. Neele concludes his chapter on Petrus van Mastricht’s doctrine of the Trinity by highlighting the prominence that Mastricht gives to the covenant ( Petrus Van Mastricht (1630-1706): Reformed Orthodoxy: Method and Piety , 278):

“Mastricht carefully exposited and formulated the divine economy of the Holy Trinity, with a strong christological and pneumatological dimension, as the eternal pactum with the allotted positions of the Father as Originator, Lawgiver, and merciful Provider of redemption, the Son as Mediator and expromissor , and the Holy Spirit as Paraclete and Applicator in the work of salvation. The identification and centrality of the eternal pactum , or council or peace, in Mastricht’s discussion of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is distinctive in relation to other seventeenth-century Reformed theologians . . . . [It] arises, here, from Mastricht’s exegetical understanding of the biblical texts related to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, it ought not to be explained as a result of a federal theological motif employed by Mastricht. Rather it is a result of his meticulous exegesis of Scripture. Additionally, we noted the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity . . . , especially in relation to the covenant of grace. The centrality of the pactum addresses two concerns: the tri-unity of God and the covenantal aspect of God. The former is complementary to his doctrine of divine spirituality and simplicity. The latter establishes that the God of Mastricht is not a metaphysical construct but a Triune God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of all His people throughout the ages: the God of the covenant.”

A God the philosophers, and a God of Abraham.