Irenaeus, bk.4, c. 28, p. 254:
SECTION XVII: ON THE PERFECTION OF GOD
§ 291. Until now we have been discussing the first and second classes of attributes. We come now to the third, which includes: (1) God’s perfection. (2) Majesty. (3) Blessedness.
Therefore let our thesis be: As God is the supreme being, so also He is the utterly perfect being.
[God’s perfection is proved by: (I) Scripture.] Perfection is attributed to God: (1) Essentially, and in fact: (a) Affirmatively, because He is perfect in and through Himself and contains within Himself all perfections, not formally but eminently, not divided but jointly, not accidentally but essentially. Job 37:16: “Do you know the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?” Matt. 5:48: “Be perfect, just as your Father is perfect.” As He is perfect, so His goodness is perfect, His wisdom is perfect, His power is perfect, because all these are nothing else but His very essence. As He did not begin to exist but is from eternity, so also He is perfect from eternity to eternity. As His essence is unchangeable, so also His perfection is unchangeable.
(b) Negatively, because He lacks nothing, because He needs nothing outside of Himself, because in acting He needs no advice nor aid nor wisdom nor power, and He does not depend on something else in being or working. Job 22:2–3: “Can a strong man be profitable to God? Can one who acts prudently be profitable to Him? Is it useful for Him if you perfect your ways?” Isa. 40:13: “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or who has made Him to know counsel?” Ps. 16:2: “You have no need of my goods.” (See Sirach 15:12; Acts 17:25; etc.)
(c) Effectively, because “all His works are perfect” (Deut. 32:4; James 1:17; Rom. 12:2), because those who have God kindly disposed to themselves lack nothing (Gen. 15:2; Ps. 23:1; 34:[9]; 73:25; 2 Cor. 6:10).
§ 292. In other respects, because perfection is attributed to God essentially, therefore it befits Him simply. Some things are called perfect comparatively, that is, with respect to their own nature, which they obtain from God’s will and arrangement, and with respect to the end because of which they were created. Elsewhere this is called perfection in its own kind. In this way a horse is perfect because it obtains the perfection that is owed to its own nature and that befits its end. As God alone has no finite and determined being but an infinite one and, in fact, is being itself and all being, therefore He alone is also absolutely and simply perfect. That second attribution is in harmony with this distinction.
When it is said that nothing is lacking in anything in which perfection consists, this can be understood in two ways: privatively and negatively. In the former sense that is said to be perfect which lacks nothing that is due it by its own nature for its integrity. In the latter sense that is said to be perfect which lacks absolutely nothing of perfection, and in this way God alone is perfect.
§ 293. (II) The rational arguments that prove the perfection of God are drawn: (1) From supreme entity. That which is the highest being and is independent is also supremely perfect. (2) From infinity. That which is infinite in its essence can lack nothing. (3) From simplicity. The more simple something is, the more perfect it is. (4) From the causality of every perfection. Whatever is the cause of all perfections—both natural and moral in the kingdom of nature, grace, and glory—is simply and absolutely perfect.
(III) The statements of the fathers. One of the ancients says: “God is splendor that never fades, unwearied life that does not die, an ever-flowing fountain, the seminal seedbed of life, the principal principle of wisdom, the initial beginning of goodness.” Justin, QQ. et resp. ad orth., q. 113: “Because God’s perfection lies in this, that He is the same, He consequently does not increase with that which is another’s. Just as that which is the principle of number71 gives nothing to unity for its perfection (for even if the perfect unity were not the principle of number, it would still exist, and if it would become the principle of number, nevertheless it has not increased), so also God was perfect before the creation and has not increased after the creation.”
Theophilus, Ad Autolyc., bk. 2: “As we always see the sun as full and it is never diminished, so God stands out as perpetually perfect, full of power, wisdom, immortality, and all other good things.”
Irenaeus, bk.4, c. 28, p. 254:
In the beginning God formed man not as if He needed him but to have someone on whom to place His benefits. And He who does not need our ministry commanded us to follow Him, but in order to give us salvation. To follow the Savior, you see, is to partake of salvation, and to follow the light is to partake of the light. Those who are in the light do not themselves illumine the light but are illumined and given light by it. Indeed, they provide it with nothing, but they experience its benefit and are illumined by the light. So also service to God provides God with nothing, nor does God need human obedience; but He gives incorruptible life and eternal glory to those who follow and serve Him. He bestows His benefit on those who serve Him but does not Himself receive a benefit from them. After all, He is perfectly rich and without need. He requires service from humans for this reason: so that (because He is good and merciful) He may do good to those who persevere in His service. To the extent that God needs no one, to that extent man needs communion with God.
C. 31, p. 258: “God did not need the love of man, but man was lacking the glory of God, which he could in no way perceive except through that obedience which is toward God.”
Augustine, De civ. Dei, bk. 10, c. 5: “We must believe that God has no need even of man’s righteousness and that whatever right worship is paid to God profits not Him but man. For no one would say he did a benefit to a fountain by drinking or to the light by seeing.”
The Damascene calls God not merely perfect but also “superperfect and anteperfect” (Orth. fid., bk. 1, c. 5).
Antithesis.
§ 294. God’s perfection is undermined by: (I) Servetus, who said: “God in a stone is truly and properly stone and in a log is log and so on in other things” (Epist. 6 ad Calv.). However, a creature is not properly that divine being which it has in the divine mind, but is that which it contains in itself, distinct from God.
(II) Vorstius, when he argues that “true hope, properly speaking, or expectation,” as well as “wishing and desire can be attributed to God” (Tract. de Deo, p. 441). But for what would He hope, what would He desire and expect to whom all things are present and who contains all things by the perfection of His essence?
(III) The Calvinists, when they argue: “It was necessary for man to fall so that God would have the opportunity to exercise His mercy and justice.” (See Beza, Colloq. Momp., p. 428; and Piscator, Resp. ad apol. Vorst., p. 483.) However, God is not perfected by external works, which are documents and traces of His essential and inner perfection. (See our De glor. Dei, disp. 6, § 8; and our commonplace On Original Sin [Commonplace XII], § 21.)
Questions regarding God’s perfection.
§ 295. (1) The question arises: If God is perfect, why is He said to have made all things because of Himself? (Prov. 16:4). We respond. He did that not because of a need of His own but for the purpose of communicating His goodness and manifesting His glory. Scaliger, Exerc. 250, sect. 1:
Everything that exists is because of something else, rather than because of itself, with the single exception of God alone. Therefore all things exist because of that One that does not exist because of something else. Therefore all things will exist because of God, who does not exist as God because of something else besides Himself. Furthermore, because we say that all things that exist because of something else are something good for that thing because of which they exist, all these things would seem to provide something good to God because they exist because of Him. But this is wrong. Wherefore that proposition is understood with an ambiguous meaning: “All things exist for the sake of man and man exists for the sake of God.” Because man needed these in order to be and to be well, but God is not like this. In fact, man needs God that he may be and be well.
§ 296. (II) The question arises: If God is perfect, why does He require obedience from man? We respond. Not so that something may be added to His goodness and perfection but so that we may acknowledge His goodness and that, through this acknowledgment joined with faith and love, salvation and life may be communicated to us. Essentially and immutably God has His own glory from eternity to eternity (John 17:5), even if His creatures do not acknowledge and praise it. Therefore the fact that He wants us to glorify Him, that is, to acknowledge and praise His glory, is done not for His convenience or increase but only for our advantage.
§ 297. (III) The question arises: If God is perfect, why does He employ the works of others? We respond. Not from necessity but from freedom. Even if all second causes are removed, the first cause can easily supply what is lacking because of its supreme perfection in being and acting. Therefore He uses second causes not because of an imperfection of His activity nor because of some need or necessity, but to honor them not only with regard to their existence but also with regard to their power to effect [efficientia].
§ 298. (IV) The question arises: How are the created perfections in God, because they do not name Him and because they are not only different but are even sometimes opposite, such as, to be spirit and to be body? The Scholastics respond that the created perfections are in God not formally but (1) eminently, as in an efficient cause; (2) objectively, as in one who understands; (3) representatively, as in an idea or model. They also distinguish between two considerations of created perfections. To the extent that created perfections are considered as accidents and as created and finite perfections, to that extent they are not in God formally. On the other hand, to the extent that they are considered as perfect abstract forms and as being in a common concept that includes no imperfection, to that extent they are in God formally, such as intellect, will, wisdom. These they call “simply simple perfections.” They argue that all created perfections are in God from Ps. 94:9: “He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not consider?” Ps. 50:11: “The beauty of the field is with Me.” (In Hebrew this reads “The beasts.”) Isa. 66:9: “Shall I, who cause others to produce, be sterile?” Rom. 11:36: “Of Him and in Him are all things.” They also argue it by reasoning: It cannot happen that any perfection is in an effect and that this perfection does not preexist in an efficient cause. But God is the efficient cause of all created perfections.
The practical use of the doctrine of the perfection of God.
§ 299. (I) Consoling. The perfect God will wipe out our imperfection to which we are subject in this life, will renew us perfectly according to His image, and will perfect us in eternal life (1 Cor. 13:10). 1 Cor. 15:28: “Then He will be all in all.” He will be perfect light to the intellect; perfect goodness to our will; perfect righteousness to our emotions; perfect joy to our heart; perfect healing, brightness, and immortality to our body; etc. “Whatever is loved shall be present, and whatever is not present shall not be desired” (Augustine, De Trinit., bk. 13, c. 7).
(II) Exhorting: (1) To love God. Whatever is loved and desired as good in creatures is imperfect and divided, for no creature has perfect goodness and “all goodness” (Exod. 33:19). Why, then, would we want to love the imperfectly good and ignore the perfect good? Love that supreme thing which is the perfect good and is sufficient to itself, and you will lack nothing.
(2) To glorify God. God is perfect and, in fact, He alone is perfect. Therefore we owe all glory to Him alone. The more perfect something is, the more worthy of honor and glory it is. God is utterly perfect and He alone is supremely perfect. Therefore we owe Him the greatest and, in fact, all glory. Ps. 18:[2]: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my stronghold, my liberator, my rock, my protector, my refuge, the horn of my salvation.”
(3) To acknowledge our own imperfection. We always appear perfect to ourselves, but if we turn our eyes to the supreme perfection of God, which should be the model and norm of our perfection, then we recognize our imperfection. Job 4:17–19: “Shall man be justified in comparison with God? … Behold, among His servants no faithful ones are left, and His angels are charged with foolishness. How much more shall they who live in mud huts.” Gregory on Job 7: “That righteousness of ours, as set before the examination of God’s righteousness, is unrighteousness. What shines in the estimation of the doer is filthy in the discernment of the Judge.”
(4) To imitate God’s perfection. Matt. 5:48: “Be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” To be sure, we cannot attain that supreme perfection of divine goodness and mercy in the weakness of this life. Meanwhile, however, we ought to imitate and follow it as our model and rule. As a pupil cannot copy precisely and to the exact line the pattern set before him but constantly looks at it in writing his letters and tries to direct his writing according to it, so God’s perfection is the rule for our lives and actions, though our conformity with it is only beginning here but ultimately will be complete and perfect in the future life.