In the course of his book, Swinnock considered at least sixteen specific attributes of God. He defined God’s attributes as “those perfections in the divine nature which are ascribed to Him so that we can better understand Him. They are called attributes because they are attributed to Him for our sake, even though they are not in Him as they are in humans or angels.”⁸ Swinnock’s definitions of these attributes are rooted in Scripture, clearly explained, and simply expressed.

The Puritans rightly believed that though “the magnitude of God’s perfections is well beyond the reach of our finite understanding,” yet “we can know what He has chosen to reveal.”¹

On the one hand, God is incomparable and incomprehensible. “For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?” (Ps. 89:6). But on the other hand, God has made Himself known by revealing Himself through His works (Ps. 8:1; 19:1–6; Rom. 1:18–20); His Word (Ps. 19:7–11; Heb. 1:1); and supremely in His incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:3; Heb. 1:2; 1 John 5:20).

As we saw in the previous chapter, this conviction grounded the Puritans’ sermons, discourses, and theological treatises in the clear teaching of Scripture, making them reliable, helpful guides for believers today. What Spurgeon once said of John Bunyan could be said of all the best Puritan divines: “Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture…. Prick him anywhere—his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God.”² The writings of the Puritans are saturated with Scripture. They were profoundly biblical thinkers, gripped with a passion for knowing, loving, and obeying God.

One of the finest examples is Swinnock’s The Incomparableness of God, recently reprinted in a modernized edition as The Blessed and Boundless God.³ Swinnock’s book-length meditation on Psalm 89:6 (quoted above) is a careful and practical study of God’s being, attributes, works, and words.

Swinnock wrote about the incomparable excellence of God’s being, showing that God’s being is independent, perfect, universal, unchangeable, eternal, simple, infinite, and incomprehensible.⁴ He began by asserting that “God is His own first cause” and “His own last end.”⁵ Angelic and human beings derive their existence from God, but God is entirely self-existent, dependent on no one.

Read More