The prophet had seen Christ and the glory of Christ in the vision in which he said, I saw the Lord of hosts sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and what follows.

We have talked about standing; we have talked about walking; let us talk about sitting. Whenever God is represented as seated, the portrayal takes one of two forms: either he appears as the ruler or as the judge. If he is like a king, one sees him as Isaiah does: I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne. There he is presented as the sovereign king.

It is obvious from the very words of Isaiah that he saw God because of God’s condescension. He said, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. But God is not sitting down. Beings with bodies sit. Isaiah also said, on a throne. But God is not encompassed by a throne, because divinity cannot be contained within boundaries. That said, the seraphim could not endure the condescension of God although they were nearby. . . . He said, And the seraphim stood around him, because he wanted to make it clear that although the seraphim are closer to the essence of God than human beings are, they cannot look upon his essence simply because they are closer to it. He is not referring to place in a localized sense. When he speaks of nearness, he is demonstrating that the seraphim are closer to God than we human beings are.

By speaking of Uzziah’s death, the prophet informs us that it was Uzziah’s sin that had brought an end to prophetic activity. At the beginning of his reign Uzziah had God’s favor and was victorious over the Allophyles [foreigners]and other neighboring enemies. But he became blinded by pride because of his victory. His pride caused him to usurp the honor of the priesthood. He took it on himself to trespass into the sanctuary of the temple and offer incense, though even the priests were not allowed to do this, as only the high priest had the right to enter the Holy of Holies. Azarias and other priests tried to stop him from doing this, but he ignored their warning. . . . It was not until after the death of the king that God granted this vision to the prophet, who had angered God by not identifying the culpability of the king.

Why does God appear to be sitting on a throne with seraphim, when God does not sit?^[1] He is accommodating himself to the ways of human beings.

Isaiah has revealed the Father’s existence but not his essence (which cannot be seen). In other places God reveals himself in ways that also demonstrate that no one has seen his essence. Abraham saw him in one way, Moses in another, Micah saw him in yet another way, which was different from the way Daniel saw him. Ezekiel saw God in yet another way. God’s essence, however, does not have many different forms, because God is incorporeal, indivisible, simple, invisible and inaccessible.

No one can deny that the prophet saw the Son in the glory of God the Father, as John said: Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him [Christ].^[1] Look and see the great honor that is due to God, and see the authority he has over all creation. God is high and lifted up on a throne, crowned with the splendor of his reign. . . . In my view we should not think of the throne of God as lifted up in a physical way. That would be foolish and absurd. Rather, that the throne is said to be lifted up means that the reign of God transcends all things. That God is sitting refers to his immovability and that his blessings are everlasting and unchanging.

Let us bring our discourse back to our earlier proposition and let us show that God, even by the accommodation of condescension, cannot be seen by the powers above. Tell me this. Why do the seraphim stretch forth their wings? There is no other reason than the statement made by the apostle: Who dwells in unapproachable light.^[1] And these heavenly virtues, who are showing this by their very actions, are not the only ones. There are powers higher than the seraphim, namely, the cherubim. The seraphim stood near; the cherubim are the throne of God. They are not called this because God has need of a throne but so that you may learn how great is the dignity of these very powers.

Some think there are two seraphim, but I, based on the idea expounded by the sacred Scripture, which says, the seraphim stood round about him, think there are many, and they are bodyguards, as it were, like a crown from all sides, surrounding his throne with light and enlivened by him.

My Hebrew master used to say that the two seraphim, which are described in Isaiah as having six wings each and as crying one to another and saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, were to be understood to mean the only-begotten Son of God and the Holy Spirit.

My Hebrew teacher also used to teach as follows, that since the beginning or the end of all things could not be comprehended by any except our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, this was the reason why Isaiah spoke of there being in the vision that appeared to him two seraphim only, who with two wings cover the face of God, with two cover his feet and with two fly, crying one to another and saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of your glory. For because the two seraphim alone have their wings over the face of God and over his feet, we may venture to declare that neither the armies of the holy angels, nor the holy thrones, nor the dominions, nor principalities nor powers can wholly know the beginnings of all things and the ends of the universe.

Cherubim and seraphim with unwearied voices praise him and say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. They say it not once, lest you should believe that there is but one; not twice, lest you should exclude the Spirit; they say not holies [in the plural], lest you should imagine that there is plurality, but they repeat three times and say the same word, that even in a hymn you may understand the distinction of persons in the Trinity and the oneness of the Godhead, and while they say this they proclaim God.

We make mention also of the seraphim, whom Isaiah in the Holy Spirit saw standing around the throne of God, and with two of their wings veiling their face, and with two their feet, while with two they flew, crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. For the reason of our reciting this confession of God, delivered down to us from the seraphim, is this, that so we may be partakers with the hosts of the world above in their hymn of praise.

Do you desire to learn how the powers above pronounce that name; with what awe, with what terror, with what wonder? I saw the Lord, says the prophet, sitting upon a throne, high, and lifted up; around him stood the seraphim; and one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! Do you perceive with what dread, with what awe, they pronounce that name while glorifying and praising him? But you, in your prayers and supplications, call upon him with much listlessness; when it would become you to be full of awe and to be watchful and sober!

What, then, do you think? Do you think that the angels in heaven talk over and ask each other questions about the divine essence? By no means! What are the angels doing? They give glory to God, they adore him, they chant without ceasing their triumphal and mystical hymns with a deep feeling of religious awe. Some sing, Glory to God in the highest;^[1] the seraphim chant, Holy, holy, holy, and they turn away their eyes because they cannot endure God’s presence as he comes down to adapt himself to them in condescension.

The scriptural declaration they cried out to one another means, I think, that they ungrudgingly impart to each other the conceptions resulting from their looking on God. And we should piously remember that in Hebrew the Scripture gives the designation of seraphim to the holiest of beings in order to convey that these are fiery hot and bubbling over forever because of the divine life which does not cease to bestir them.

What are we going to do there? Tell me. Sleep? Yes, here people who have nothing to do just sleep. But there is no sleep there, because there is no weariness. So we aren’t going to perform works of necessity, aren’t going to sleep—what are we going to do? None of us must be afraid of boredom; none of us must imagine it’s going to be so boring there. Do you find it boring now to be well? You can get tired of anything and everything in this age; can you get tired of being well? If you don’t get tired of good health, will you get tired of immortality? So what activity are we going to engage in? Amen and Alleluia. Here, you see, we do one thing and another, there one thing, I don’t say day and night but day without end; what the powers of heaven, the seraphim, say now without ever getting bored: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.

Isaiah, too, includes one Holy Spirit in the glory of the Trinity when he says, I saw the Lord seated on a high throne; seraphim were stationed above and cried one to the other, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! And in a following passage he says, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but you shall not understand! Look intently, but you shall see nothing!’

The prophet Isaiah did not keep silent about this Trinity of persons and unity of nature revealed to him, when he says he saw the seraphim crying out, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Therefore, where the triple holy is repeated, there is the Trinity of persons; where God Lord of hosts is said but once, we recognize the unity of the divine nature. Therefore, in that Holy Trinity—and I keep on saying it so that it may be fixed in your heart the more firmly—the Father is one, who alone by his nature has generated the one Son from himself; and the Son is one, who alone has been born from the nature of the one Father; and the Holy Spirit is one, who alone proceeds from the essence of the Father and the Son. All of this is not possible for one person, that is, to generate oneself and to be born of oneself and to proceed from oneself. Therefore, because generating is different from being born and proceeding is something different again from generating and being born, it is obvious that the Father is different, the Son is different, and the Holy Spirit is different. The Trinity, therefore, refers to the persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; unity, to the nature.

Because the seraphim use the title Lord singularly in this song, but repeat holy three times (in reference to the Trinity), we know they are referring to the one essence of Deity. The praise holy, holy, holy properly indicates the Trinity, and the appellation Lord of Hosts indicates the oneness of the divine essence. Furthermore, the seraphim, in their song, praise the eternal essence for having filled both heaven and the entire earth with his glory. This happened through the incarnation of our God and Savior; because after the appearing of the Master, the nations received the illuminating ray of divine knowledge.

The mouths of the seraphim are filled with blessings. They offer a doxology in turn, not in my opinion because they are tired but because they show respect to one another, both receiving and giving the doxology. They say holy three times and then conclude with Lord of hosts. This demonstrates that the Holy Trinity exists in one divine essence. All hold and confess that the Father exists, along with the Son and the Spirit. Nothing divides those who are named nor separates them into different natures. Just the opposite is true. We recognize one Godhead in three persons.

Because they cry out one to another or, according to the Hebrew, this one to that one, that is, mutually, they are exhorting each other to the praise of the Lord. And they say Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts, that the mystery of the Trinity in one divine nature might be displayed. They also declare that no longer is it true only of the temple of the Jews, as before, but the whole earth is filled with the glory of him who deigned to assume a human body for our salvation and descend to earth. Moreover, when Moses had prayed to ask the Lord to spare this sinful people who had worshiped a calf, the Lord responded, I will forgive them. Yet I live, and my name lives, for all the earth will be filled with my glory.^[1] And the seventy-first psalm sings, All the earth will be filled with his glory.^[2] For this reason also did angels call to the shepherds, saying, Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will.^[3] It is impious, therefore, to understand the two seraphim to be the Son and the Holy Spirit.^[4] Let us teach instead, according to John the evangelist and the apostle Paul, that the Son of God and the Holy Spirit are said to be seen reigning in majesty. Some of the Latin [commentators] understand the two seraphim to be the Old and New Testaments, which speak only of the present age.^[5] Thus they are said to have six wings and to cover the face and feet of God, and earnestly to provide a witness of the truth. Everything that they cry reveals the mystery of the Trinity. They also express wonderment to each other that the Lord of the sabbath who was in the form of God the Father accepted the form of a servant and humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross,^[6] that no longer only those in heaven would know him, as before, but also those on earth.

In announcing that the whole earth is full of his glory, the seraphim are predicting the mystery of the economy that will be brought to pass through Christ. Prior to the Word’s becoming flesh the world was ruled by the devil, the evil one, the serpent, the apostate. The creature, rather than the Creator, was worshiped. But when the only-begotten Word of God became human, the entire earth was filled with his glory.

Let us, therefore, show awe when we sinners stand in the presence of this Majesty and speak. Even though we are so impure in our deeds he draws us close to the sight of himself in the Spirit; let us therefore repeat with trembling the words of the blessed prophet Isaiah: Woe is me, for I am dazed: I am a man of unclean lips, yet my eyes have beheld the King, the Lord Almighty.

He can be seen by us in the Spirit even now, if we wish—not that he is contained on the throne in any form external to his nature, just filling the temple with the extremity of his train, as the prophet beheld. No, he is hidden in the loftiness of his hiddenness in the inaccessible light of his nature where he lives and reigns over all the extremities of the universe in the majesty of his dominion. . . .

His creation is full of the splendor of his glory: the seraphim of fire stand there to honor him, the ranks of the many-eyed cherubim^[1] escort his majestic Being, the bands of spiritual powers dash around ministering to him, the throngs of angels fly hither and thither with their wings, and all the orders of spiritual beings serve his Being in awe, crying holy in trembling and love, as they cover their faces with their wings at the splendor of his great and fearful radiance, ceaselessly crying out to one another the threefold sanctification of his exalted glory, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord Almighty, with whose glories both heaven and earth are full.

Let us therefore tremble at the magnitude of the sight of the ineffable one and at the sound that ceaselessly utters the praise of the hidden Being. And let us be filled with awe and trembling, falling on our faces in fear before him. Let us recognize our earthborn nature. Let us be aware of the base character of the dust we are made from. Let us join the prophet in saying, with feeling and with a penitent heart, Woe is our state of confusion. Let us lay bare the foulness of our sins quite openly, accusing ourselves forcefully—just as it is said: The just man condemns himself at the very beginning of his words.^[2]

This is what we too should do at the commencement of our prayer, stating before God that we are not worthy to stand in his presence in our wretched state; and that, because our blind hearts have lost their sight through concentrating on what is below, dwelling in the darkness of the earth, we are unable to gaze on the great sight of him whose glory blinds the vision of the angels of light. Again, how are we able to speak with unclean lips about his great holiness?

According to the Hebrew, Isaiah cries out in anguish and says, Woe is me because I have held my peace,^[1] because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the Lord of hosts! Because of his virtues, he deserved to enjoy the sight of God, and, because of his awareness of his sins, he confessed that his lips were unclean. Not because he had said anything that was contrary to the will of God, but because he had held his peace, deterred either by fear or modesty, and because he had not exercised the prerogative of a prophet, of condemning a sinful nation. When we, who flatter the rich and accept sinful persons, rebuke sinners, is it for the sake of base gain? Unless, perhaps, we speak with complete frankness to those whose wealth we stand in need of. We may act otherwise; we may refrain from every type of sin, but, if we keep silent about the truth, we are certainly committing a sin.

By mouth [or lips] is meant the hidden region of the heart, from which God’s praise is efficaciously sung. So he rightly proclaims after the forgiveness of his sin that his lips will be opened and that his mouth can announce the praise of the Lord.

We must especially follow the commandments, and signing our lips with the seal of the cross we must pray to the Lord that he may cleanse our mouths, which are disfigured with human foulness.

Purity of heart and simplicity are most precious in the sight of Almighty God, who is fully pure and simple in nature. Set apart from the ways of the world, the servants of God are strangers to its vain talk and thus avoid disturbing and soiling their minds in idle conversation. . . . We are drawn downward by mingling in continual conversation with people of the world. It is with good reason that Isaiah, after seeing the Lord, the King of hosts, accuses himself of this very fault. In a spirit of repentance he says, Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips. And why are his lips unclean? Because, as he explains immediately, I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips. Grieving that his own lips are unclean, he shows us that he contracted this defilement by living among a people that had unclean lips.

To take part in the talk of worldly people without defiling our own heart is all but impossible. If we permit ourselves to discuss their affairs with them, we grow accustomed to a manner of speech unbecoming to us, and we end clinging to it with pleasure and are no longer entirely willing to leave it. We enter upon the conversation reluctantly, as a kind of condescension, but we find ourselves carried along from idle words to harmful ones, from trivial faults to serious guilt, with the result that our lips are more defiled with foolish words, and our prayers further and further removed from God’s hearing. . . . Why should we be surprised, then, if God is slow to hear our petitions when we on our part are slow to hear God’s command or pay no attention whatever to it?

Let our lips be touched by the divine coal, which burns away out sins and consumes the filth of our transgressions. Moreover, it makes us zealous by the Spirit. By saying taken from the altar with tongs, Isaiah means that we receive faith in and knowledge of Christ from the teachings or announcements in the law and the prophets, in which the word of the holy apostles confirms the truth. By quoting from the law and the prophets, the apostles convince their hearers and touch their lips with the burning coal in order to lead them to confess faith in Christ.

With eyes, lips and faces turned toward it, let us receive the divine burning coal, so that the fire of the coal may be added to the desire within us to consume our sins and enlighten our hearts, and so that by this communion with the divine fire we may be set afire and deified. Isaiah saw a live coal, and this coal was not plain wood but wood joined with fire. Thus also, the bread of communion is not plain bread but bread joined with the Godhead. And the body joined with the Godhead is not one nature. On the contrary, that of the body is one, whereas that of the Godhead joined with it is another—so that both together are not one nature but two.

We read also in Isaiah that the prophet is purified with fire by one of the seraphim which was sent to him, when he took with a pair of tongs one coal from those which were upon the altar; and he touched the lips of the prophet and said, Behold, I have taken away your iniquities. These appear to me to be mystical and to indicate that the coals are put on the members of each in proportion to his sins, if he is worthy to be purified. For since the prophet says here, I have unclean lips; also I dwell in the midst of a people who have unclean lips. For this reason, a coal taken up with a pair of tongs by the seraphim cleanses his lips. . . . The cleansing of his lips indicates that Isaiah’s sin continually would be found only in words, but he would not have sinned in any act or deed. Otherwise, he would have said since I have an unclean body or I have unclean eyes, if he had sinned in desiring what belongs to something other than his lips. He would have said I have unclean hands, if he had polluted these with unjust deeds. But now since possibly he was aware of his transgression in word alone, about which the Lord says, Likewise, you will give an account for every useless word on the day of judgment;^[1] because it is difficult even for the perfect to escape the fault of the word, the prophet was likewise in need only of a purification of his lips.

Tell me, then, whoever you are who deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit could not be liable to sin, who rather forgives sin. Does an angel forgive? Does an archangel? Certainly not, but the Father alone, the Son alone and the Holy Spirit alone [can forgive sins]. Now one is obviously able to avoid that which he has power to forgive.

But perhaps someone will say that the seraph said to Isaiah, Behold, this has touched your lips and shall take away your iniquities and purge away your sins. Shall take away, he says, and shall purge, not I will take away, but that fire from the altar of God, that is, the grace of the Spirit. For what else can we piously understand to be on the altar of God but the grace of the Spirit? Certainly not the wood of the forests or the soot and coals. Or what is so in accordance with piety as to understand according to the mystery that it was revealed by the mouth of Isaiah that everyone should be cleansed by the passion of Christ, who as a coal according to the flesh burnt up our sins, as you read in Zechariah: Is not this a brand snatched from the fire? Now Joshua was clothed in filthy garments.^[1]

But let us at this time feel remorse with all the affection of our hearts. Let us admit that we are wretched in this misery of the flesh.^[1] Let us weep with holy groans because we, too, have unclean lips. Let us do all this to make that one of the seraphim bring down to us, by means of the tongs of the law of grace, a flaming sacrament of faith taken for us from the heavenly altar. Let us do this to make him touch the tip of our lips with such delicate touch as to take away our iniquities, purge away our sins and so enkindle our mouths to the full flame of complete praise that the burning will be one that results in salvation, not pain. Let us beg, too, that the heat of that coal may penetrate all the way to our hearts. Thus we may draw not only relish for our lips from the great sweetness of this mystery but also complete satisfaction for our senses and minds.

When Isaiah had seen the Lord seated high upon a lofty throne, what does he say? Woe is me, because I am in sorrow; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips. Pay attention to his exact words: Woe is me because of my unclean lips. After that, what does he tell us? Because his lips are soiled, one of the seraphim is sent to him, and the seraph taking a burning coal from the altar touches with it Isaiah’s lips and tongue and purifies his mouth. Then what does the seraph say? See, he said, now that this has touched your lips, your tongue is cleansed. Then immediately, what does the Lord say? Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? O divine secrets of Scripture! As long as Isaiah’s tongue was treacherous and his lips unclean, the Lord does not say to him, Whom shall I send, and who shall go? His lips are cleansed, and immediately he is appointed the Lord’s spokesman; hence it is true that the person with unclean lips cannot prophesy, nor can he be sent in obedient service to God. With fiery coals of the desert. Would to heaven this solitude were granted us, that it would clear away all wickedness from our tongue, so that where there are thorns, where there are brambles, where there are nettles, the fire of the Lord may come and burn all of it and make it a desert place, the solitude of Christ.

It was not with temerity and arrogance that the prophet promised his own conscience that he would go, but with fidelity, for his lips were cleansed and the iniquity of his sins washed away and purified. When the Lord had said to Moses, therefore, Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt,^[1] he too responded with humility, not contempt, saying, I beg you, Lord, to send another because I am not worthy, or as we read in Hebrew, Send him whom you were about to send,^[2] for he who had been educated with all the wisdom of the Egyptians had heard nothing about the cleansing of his lips. Isaiah also offered himself for ministry by the grace of the Lord with which he was cleansed, not by his own merit. But others think that Isaiah offered himself because he thought that the message to be announced to the people was favorable, because he heard, Go and say to this people: ‘You will hear with your ears and not understand, you will see and not recognize.’^[3] Subsequently, therefore, when the voice of the Lord had said to him Cry, he did not cry immediately but inquired, What shall I cry?^[4] Jeremiah also, to whom it had been said, Take this cup and make all the nations to whom I will send you drink from it,^[5] willingly accepting the cup of punishments to give to the enemy nations that they would drink and vomit and fall, later heard, Go and first make Jerusalem drink from it,^[6] to which he replied, You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.^[7] This observation pertains to the Hebrews, but we acknowledge that others were obedient, not impetuous, in offering themselves to be sent by the Lord.^[8]

But he appeared not so much for the eyes of human beings as for their salvation, for even though he was first seen by fleshly eyes when he was born of the virgin, still he did not appear because the eye of faith did not as yet recognize his power. Hence it is said to the Jews by the prophet: Seeing you will see and will not see; that is, the Savior whom they discerned with their fleshly eyes they did not see in a spiritual light.

Behold mercy and judgment: mercy upon the elect, who have obtained the justice of God, but judgment upon the others who have been blinded. And yet the former have believed, because they have willed, while the latter have not believed, because they have not willed. Hence mercy and judgment were brought about in their own wills. Clearly this election is through grace, not at all through merits.

See here that the rest of the earth is desolate, and those who remain on the earth alone are said to multiply. These must be the disciples of the Savior, going forth from the Hebrews to all people. Like a seed left behind they have brought forth much fruit, which are the churches of the Gentiles in every dwelling place. In addition, when he says that only those who remain from the falling away of the Jews will multiply, he also says that the Jews themselves are desolate. For he says of them, Their land shall be left desolate. And this was said to them before by the same prophet, saying, Your land is completely desolate, your cities burned with fire, before you strangers will devour your country.^[1]

When was this fulfilled other than in the time of our Savior? Before they dared to do evil things to him, their land was not desolate, their cities not burned with fire, and strangers did not devour their country. Our Savior and Lord predicted what was to happen to them through that prophetic announcement, saying, Your house is left to you desolate. It was not long from the prediction of that moment that the Romans laid siege to them and brought them to desolation.

The prophetic word gives the reason for the desolation by showing the cause of their fall, making the understanding of it clear. When they heard our Savior teaching among them but would not listen with the ear of the mind and did not understand who he was, seeing him with their eyes and not with the eyes of their spirit, they hardened their heart, closed the eyes of their mind, and made their ears heavy.^[2] As the prophecy says, their cities would become desolate such that no one would live in them because of this. In addition, their land would become desolate, and only a few would remain, being kept like fruitful seed who would proceed to all people and multiply on the earth.