PERFECTION, PERFECT (per fek'shiln, per' fekt).
The fundamental idea of the Hebrew and Greek words which are thus rendered is completeness. If the Great Captain of our salvation was made "perfect through suffering" (Hcb. :to; Luke xiii : 22) it certainly indicated no defect in his .char acter, but the completion of his sublime attributes and mission. Absolute completion and perfection is the attribute of God (Job xxxvi :4; xxxv11:16; Matt. v:48).
Perfection is that state or quality of a thing in which it is free from defect or redundan.cy. According to some, it is divided into physical or natural. whereby a thing has all its powers and faculties: maral, or an eminent degree of goodness and piety ; and metaphysical or trail scendent is the possession of all the essential at tributes or parts necessary to the integrity of a substance; or it is that whereby a thing has or is provided of everything belonging to its nature; such is the perfection of God.
The term perfection, says the great Witsius, is not always used in the same sense in the Scrip tures. (I) There is a perfection of sincerity, whereby a man serves God without hypocrisy (Job i ; Is. xxxviii:3). (2) There is a per fection of parts, subjective with respect to the whole man (1 Thess.v :23), and objective with re spect to the whole law, when all the duties pre scribed by God are observed (Ps. cxix;t28; Luke i:6). (3) There is a comparative perfection ascribed to those who are advanced in knowledge, faith, and sanctification, in comparison of those who are still infants and untaught (1 John ii: 13; t Cor. :6; Phil. iii :15). (4) There is an evangelical perfection. The righteousness of
Christ being imputed to the believer, he is com fore formed a particular profession. The rokechim of Exod. xxx :25, 35; Neh. iii:8; Eccles. x:1, called 'Apothecary' in the Auth. Vers., was no other than a maker of perfumes. So strong were the better kinds of ointments, and so perfectly were the different component substances amal gamated, that they have been known to retain their scent several hundred years. One of the alabaster vases in the museum at Alnwick Castle contains some of the ancient Egyptian ointment, between two and three thousand years old, and yet its odor remains (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, ii. 314) • The 'holy anointing oil,' employed in the sacer dotal unction, was composed of two parts 'myrrh' (see MoR), two parts 'cassia' (see KIDDAH), one part 'cinnamon' (see KINNAMON), one part 'sweet calamtts' (see the article on KANEH), com pounded 'according to the art of the perfumer,' with a sufficient quantity of the purest olive oil to give it the proper consistence (Exod. xxx: plete in him, and accepted of God as perfect through Christ (Col. ii:to; Eph. Y:27; 2 Cor. v:21). (5) There is also a perfection of degrees, by which a person performs all the commands of God with the full exertion of all his powers without the least defect. This is what the law of God requires, but what the saints cannot attain to in this life, though we willingly allow them all the other kinds above mentioned (Rom. vii: 24; Phil. iii:t2; t John i:8). (See SANCTIFICA TION; SIN.) (Buck, Theol. Dict.)