It is the Spirit which says, as the Lord says,
“Get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I
have sent them.”
Acts x. 20. Are these the
words of an inferior, or of one in dread? “Separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called
them.”
Acts xiii. 2. Does a slave
speak thus? And Isaiah, “The Lord God and His Spirit hath
sent me,”
Isa. xlviii.
16. Mr. C. F.
Johnston remarks: “In Isaiah xlviii. 16 St. Didymus, as translated by St.
Jerome, gives Spiritum suum. The Targum has the
same. St. Ambrose writes: ‘Quis est qui
dicit; misit me Dominus Deus et Spiritus Ejus; nisi Qui venit a
Patre, ut salvos faceret peccatores? Quem ut audis, et
Spiritus misit; ne cum legis quia Filius Spiritum mittit,
inferioris esse Spiritum crederes potestatis,’ (De
Sp. S. iii. 1, § 7.) The passage is quoted by St.
Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Cyril Hieros., and, as far as the
editor is aware, without any comment which would help to
determine their way of understanding the case of τὸ
πνεῦμα; but Origen,
on the words ‘Whosoever shall humble himself as this little
child’ (Comm. in Evang., Matt. xiii. 18)
says,—quoting the original, which may be rendered,
“‘humbling himself as this little child is imitating
the Holy Spirit, who humbled Himself for men’s
salvation. That the Saviour and the Holy Ghost were sent by
the Father for the salvation of men is made plain by Isaiah
saying, in the person of the Saviour, ‘the Lord sent me,
and His Spirit.’ It must be observed, however, that
the phrase is ambiguous, for either God sent and the Holy Ghost
also sent, the Saviour; or, as I understand, the Father sent
both, the Saviour and the Holy Ghost.’” The
Vulgate and Beza both render
“Spiritus.” The order of
the Hebrew is in favour of the nominative, as in the Vulgate and
lxx. cf. Note A on Chap. xlviii. of Isaiah in the
Speaker’s Commentary. and “the
Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them.”
Is. lxii. 14, LXX. And pray do not again understand by
this guidance some humble service, for the Word witnesses that it was
the work of God;—“Thou leddest thy people,” it is
said “like a flock,”
Ps. lxxvii.
20. and
“Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock,”
Ps. lxxx. 1. and “He led them on safely, so that
they feared not.”
Ps. lxxviii.
53. Thus when you
hear that when the Comforter is come, He will put you in remembrance,
and “guide you into all truth,”
John xvi. 13. cf. xiv.
26. do
not misrepresent the meaning.