For it is not ye that speak
Not but that they were to speak the words, and did; but then both
the things they spoke, and the very words in which they spoke
them, were not of themselves, but were suggested and dictated by
the Spirit of God; for as "the preparation of the heart" in them,
so "the answer of the tongue" by them, were both "from the Lord":
the Spirit, he was the efficient cause, they were only
instruments; for not they of themselves spoke; or not so much
they,
but the Spirit of your father, which speaketh in
you,
or "by you": what they should say was not to be dictated by their
own spirit or natural understanding, nor by an angel, but by the
Spirit of God; called the "Spirit of" their "father", because he
proceeds from him, is of the same nature with him, and is the
reason of his being given to them: and this character of him
might serve to strengthen their faith in the expectation of him,
and in the assistance promised, and to be had by him; since he
was the spirit of him, who stood in the relation of a father to
them, and bore a paternal affection for them.