Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

ounds in the extravagance of the honour we pay? Shall we not rather fear lest, even though
we seem to give Him the highest names which the thoughts of man can conceive or man’s
tongue utter, we let our thoughts about Him fall too low?
It is the Spirit which says, as the Lord says, “Get thee down, and go with them, doubting
nothing: for I have sent them.” 1134 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.” 1135 Does a
slave speak thus? And Isaiah, “The Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me,” 1136 and “the
Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them.” 1137 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,” 1138 and “Thou that leadest Joseph
like a flock,” 1139 and “He led them on safely, so that they feared not.” 1140 Thus when you
hear that when the Comforter is come, He will put you in remembrance, and “guide you
into all truth,” 1141 do not misrepresent the meaning.
50. But, it is said that “He maketh intercession for us.” 1142 It follows then that, as the
suppliant is inferior to the benefactor, so far is the Spirit inferior in dignity to God. But
1134 Acts x. 20.
1135 Acts xiii. 2.
1136 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.
1137 Is. lxii. 14, LXX.
1138 Ps. lxxvii. 20.
1139 Ps. lxxx. 1.
1140 Ps. lxxviii. 53.
1141 John xvi. 13. cf. xiv. 26.
1142 Rom. viii. 26, 27.
Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be glorified.
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