Every good gift and every perfect gift
Whether of nature, providence, or grace, and especially the
latter; spiritual gifts given along with Christ, or spiritual
blessings in him; every such gift is; as the Vulgate Latin
version reads, the "best" gift; better than those which only
relate to the present life: and is "perfect" such as the gifts of
righteousness, remission of sins, adoption, regeneration, and
eternal life. The Jews say F11, that the good things of
this world are not truly good, in comparison of the good things
of the world to come, and are not (bwj rwmg) , "a perfect good." And every such an one is
from above; is not from a man's self, from the creature, or from
below, but from heaven, and from God who dwells there:
and cometh down from the Father of lights;
or author of lights; of all corporeal light; as the sun, moon,
and stars; of all natural, rational, and moral light, in angels
and men; of all spiritual light, or the light of grace in
regenerate persons; and of eternal light, the light of glory in
the spirits of just then made perfect:
with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of
turning:
as there is in that great luminary, the sun in the firmament,
which has its parallaxes, eclipses, and turnings, and casts its
shadow; it rises and sets, appears and disappears every day; and
it comes out of one tropic, and enters into another at certain
seasons of the year: but with God, who is light itself, and in
him is no darkness at all, there is no change, nor anything like
it; he is changeable in his nature, perfections, purposes,
promises, and gifts; wherefore he being holy, cannot turn to that
which is evil; nor can he, who is the fountain of light, be the
cause of darkness, or admit of any in him; and since every good
and perfect gift comes from him, evil cannot proceed from him,
nor can he tempt any to it.