Objection: Scripture calls some saints perfect
Thesis XX. Someone will object that in that very passage the apostle assumes some people are perfect and counts himself among them. Right after the words just quoted he adds, 'Let as many of us as are perfect think this way.' In 1 Corinthians 2 he says, 'We speak wisdom among the perfect.'
Scripture also testifies of many holy men that they were perfect. Of Noah, Genesis 6 says: 'Noah was a righteous man and perfect in his generations, and he walked with God.' Of Job, God himself says to Satan in chapters 1 and 2: 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is no one like him on earth, Isch Tham, that is, a man of integrity, or perfect, and upright, who fears God and turns away from evil?'
David in Psalm 18 does not even shrink from claiming such perfection: 'I was blameless, or perfect, with him, and kept myself from my iniquity. And the Lord repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.'
Latin
XX. At, inquies, Apostolus ipse eo in loco supponit quosdam esse perfectos, & se in eorum numero collocat. Verbis enim citatis subjungit, quicunque ergo perfecti sumus hoc sentiamus. Et 1 Cor. 2. Sapientiam, inquit, loquimur inter perfectos. Multisque viris sanctis in scriptura testimonium perhibetur quod perfecti fuerint. Ita de Noe dicitur Gen. 6. Noe vir justus fuit atque perfectus in generationibus suis, & ambulavit cum Deo. Et de Job Deus ipse Satanam alloquens dicit, Nunquid considerasti servum meum Job, quod non sit ei similis in terra, Isch Tham, i. Vir integer, sive, perfectus, & rectus, ac timens Deum, & recedens a malo? cap. 1. & 2. Imo David, Psal. 18. non veretur sibi talem perfectionem tribuere. Fui, inquit, immaculatus, sive perfectus, cum eo, & custodivi me ab iniquitate mea. Et retribuit mihi Dominus secundum justitiam meam, & secundum puritatem manuum mearum in conspectu oculorum ejus.