{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6618","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":4,"verse_to":4},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: How doth He bear witness? not by word or by voice, (though this also would have been worthy of belief): but how? \"By signs, and wonders, and divers miracles.\" (Well said he, \"divers miracles,\" declaring the abundance of the gifts: which was not so in the former dispensation, neither so great signs and so various.) That is, we did not believe them simply, but through signs and wonders: wherefore we believe not them, but God Himself.</p><p>\"And by gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.\"</p><p>What then, if wizards also do signs, and the Jews said that He \"cast out devils through Beelzebub\"? But they do not such kind of signs: therefore said he \"divers miracles\": for those others were not miracles, [or powers,] but weakness and fancy, and things altogether vain. Wherefore he said, \"by gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will.\"</p><p>Here he seems to me to intimate something further. For it is not likely there were many there who had gifts, but that these had failed, upon their becoming more slothful. In order then that even in this he might comfort them, and not leave them to fall away, he referred all to the will of God. He knows (he says) what is expedient, and for whom, and apportions His grace accordingly. Which also he [Paul] does in the Epistle to the Corinthians, saying, \"God hath set every one of us, as it pleased Him.\" And again, \"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.\"</p><p>\"According to His will.\" He shows that the gift is according to the will of the Father. But oftentimes on account of their unclean and slothful life many have not received a gift, and sometimes also those whose life is good and pure have not received one. Why, I pray you? Lest they might be made haughty, that they might not be puffed up, that they might not grow more negligent, that they might not be more excited. For if even without a gift, the mere consciousness of a pure life be sufficient to lift a man up, much more when the grace is added also. Wherefore to the humble, to the simple, it was rather given, and especially to the simple: for it is said, \"in singleness and gladness of heart.\" Yea, and hereby also he rather urged them on, and if they were growing negligent gave them a spur. For the humble, and he who imagines no great things concerning himself, becomes more earnest when he has received a gift, in that he has obtained what is beyond his deserts, and thinks that he is not worthy thereof. But he who thinks he hath done well, reckoning it to be his due, is puffed up. Wherefore God dispenseth this profitably: which one may see taking place also in the Church: for one hath the word of teaching, another hath not power to open his mouth. Let not this man (he says) be grieved because of this. For \"the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.\" For if a man that is an householder knoweth to whom he should entrust anything, much more God, who understands the mind of men, \"who knoweth all things or ever they come into being.\" One thing only is worthy of grief, Sin: there is nothing else.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 3</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Then, lest those who heard from Christ be believed to lie, and say one thing for another: He says not so. For God Himself bears witness to the truth along with them through signs and wonders, and various powers which He works for them.<br/>\"and various miracles.\" Paul said \"various\" to indicate the abundance of the gifts; for never were so many and so diverse signs produced. And since magicians also perform many things, he said \"miracles\"; for those are not powers but weakness and illusion and empty matters.<br/>\"by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed.\" And through the gifts and the coming of the Holy Spirit, those things are made which are of divine testimony. It is said, however, concerning distributions, that as spiritual grace is distributed, it is according to each one's measure and according to the proportion of faith, and as it is expedient for each. (1 Cor. 12:6)<br/>\"according to His own will.\" Namely, of the Paraclete. Dividing, Paul says, to each as He wishes.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"436c3023f546dddcb0ffffef8d5632f8ac36a6e00d6f782ba61cbb5eccb54cd0","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6618,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"18559fce5b1509240a0366900e358c75ea223c83679c616334ccd9df5b4b04e8","translator":null,"work":null}