An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

and doubtless, he had been liable to censure, as arrogating too much to himself, had he spoken in the first person, I that am perfect in knowledge am with thee: Therefore he covers and conceals himself by expressing it in the third person, He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee; that is, He that is with thee to convince thee of thy former error, and to give thee better counsel, is perfect in knowledge.

and doub•less, he had been lyable to censure, as arrogating too much to himself, had he spoken in the first person, I that am perfect in knowledge am with thee: Therefore he covers and conceals himself by expressing it in the third person, He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee; that is, He that is with thee to convince thee of thy former errour, and to give thee better counsel, is perfect in knowledge.

But is that true? was Elihu, or is any man perfect in knowledge, or (as the Hebrew ha•h it plurally) in knowledges, that is, in all kinds of knowledge, or in all the degrees of knowledge of any kind? Surely, No man is perfect in the knowledge of any one thing, much less of all things, (1 Cor. 13.9, 12.) We know in ⟨p. 157⟩part, and prophesy in part, we see but darkly, &c. How then can it be said of Elihu, He is perfect in knowledge? I answer; There is a twofold perfection. First, Absolute. Secondly, Comparative. There's no man living here below hath absolute perfection of knowledge; yet one man being compared with another, may be said to be perfect in knowledge, another not: There are various degrees of knowledge in man; the highest degree of knowledge compared with the lowest, may be called perfect knowledge. Thus we are to understand Elihu speaking at the rate of a creature, not of God, or as becomes and is commensurable with the state of man in this life, whose best perfection in knowledge, is to know his own imperfections.