mission which Isaiah received to go as a prophet, in God's name, (v. 8.) by his preaching to harden the impenitent in sin, and ripen them for ruin; (v. 9..12.) yet with a reservation of mercy for a remnant, v. 13. And it was as to an evangelical prophet, that these things were showed him, and said to him.
1.IN the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
The vision which Isaiah saw when he was, as is said of Samuel, established to be a prophet of the Lord, (1 Sam. iii. 20.) was intended, 1. To confirm his faith, that he might himself be abundantly satisfied of the truth of those things which should afterward be made known to him. Thus God opened the communications of himself to him; but such visions needed not to be afterward repeated, upon every revelation. Thus God appeared at first as a God of glory to Abraham, (Acts vii. 2.) and to Moses, Exod. iii. 2. Ezekiel's prophecies, and St. John's, begin with visions of the divine glory. 2. To work upon his affections, that he might be possessed of such a reverence of God, as would both quicken him, and fix him, to his service. They who are to teach others the knowledge of God, ought to be well acquainted with him themselves.
The vision is dated, for the greater certainty of it; it was in the year that king Uzziah died, who had reigned, for the most part, as prosperously and well as any of the kings of Judah, and reigned very long, above fifty years: about the time that he died, Isaiah saw this vision of God upon a throne; for when the breath of princes goes forth, and they return to their earth, this is our comfort, that the Lord shall reign for ever, Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4, 10. Israel's king dies, but Israel's God still lives. From the mortality of great and good men, we should take occasion to look up with an eye of faith to the King eternal, immortal. King Uzziah died under a cloud, for he was shut up as a leper till the day of his death: as the lives of princes have their periods, so their glory is often eclipsed; but as God is everlasting, so his glory is everlasting. King Uzziah dies in a hospital, but the King of kings still sits upon his throne.
What the prophet here saw is revealed to us, that we, mixing faith with that revelation, may in it, as in a glass, behold the glory of the Lord: let us turn aside therefore, and see this great sight with humble reverence.
I. See God upon his throne, and that throne high and lifted up, not only above other thrones, as it transcends them, but over other thrones, as it rules and commands them. Isaiah saw not Jehovah—the essence of God, (no man has seen that, or can see it,) but Adonai—his dominion; he saw the Lord Jesus; so this vision is explained, (John xii. 41. ) that Isaiah now saw Christ's glory, and spake of him; which is an incontestable proof of the divinity of our Saviour. He it is, who, when, after his resurrection, he sat down on the right hand of God, did but sit down where he was before, John xvii. 5. See the rest of the Eternal Mind; Isaiah saw the Lord sitting, Ps. xxix. 10. See the sovereignty of the Eternal Monarch; he sits upon a throne, a throne of glory, before which we must worship, a throne of government, under which we must be subject, and a throne of grace, to which we may come boldly. This throne is high, and lifted up above all competition and contradiction.
II. See his temple, his church on earth, filled with manifestations of his glory. His throne being erected at the door of the temple, (as princes sat in judgment at the gates,) his train, the skirts of his robes, filled the temple, the whole world; for it is all God's temple; and as the heaven is his throne, so the earth is his footstool; or, rather, the church, which is filled, enriched, and beautified, with the tokens of God's special presence.
III. See the bright and blessed attendants on his throne, in and by whom his glory is celebrated, and his government served; (v. 2.) Above the throne, as it were hovering about it, or nigh to the throne, bowing before it, with an eye to it, the seraphim stood, the holy angels, who are called seraphim—burners; for he makes his ministers a flaming fire, (Ps. civ. 4.) they burn in love to God, and zeal for his glory against sin, and he makes use of them as instruments of his wrath, when he is a consuming Fire to his enemies. Whether they were only two or four, or (as I rather think) an innumerable company of angels, that Isaiah saw, is uncertain; see Dan. vii. 10. Note, It is the glory of the angels, that they are seraphim, have heat proportionable to their light, have abundance, 'not only of divine knowledge, but of holy love.
Special notice is taken of their wings, (and of no other part of their appearance,) because of the use they made of them; which is designed for instruction to us. They had each of them six wings, not stretched upward, (as those whom Ezekiel saw, ch. i. 11.) but, 1. Four were made use of for covering, as the wings of a fowl, sitting, are; with the two upper wings, next the head, they covered their faces; and with the two lowest wings they covered their feet, or lower parts. This bespeaks their great humility and reverence in their attendance upon God, for he is greatly feared in the assembly of those saints, Ps. lxxxix. 7. They not only cover their feet, those members of the body which are less honourable, (1 Cor. xii. 23.) but even their faces; though angels' faces, doubtless, are much fairer than those of the children of men, (Acts vi. 15.) yet, in the presence of God, they cover them, because they cannot bear the dazzling lustre of the divine glory, and because, being conscious of an infinite distance from the divine perfection, they are ashamed to show their faces before the holy God, who charges even his angels with folly, if they should offer to vie with him, Job iv. 18. If angels be thus reverent in their attendance on God, with what godly fear should we approach his throne! Else we do not the will of God as the angels do it. Yet Moses, when he went into the mount with God, took the vail from off his face, 2 Cor. iii. 18. 2. Two were made use of for flight; when they are sent on God's errands, they fly swiftly, (Dan. ix. 21.) more swiftly with their own wings than if they flew on the wings of the wind. This teaches us to do the work of God with cheerfulness and expedition. Do angels come upon the wing from heaven to earth, to minister for our good, and shall not we soar upon the wing from earth to heaven, to share with them in their glory? Luke xx. 36.
IV. Hear the anthem, or song of praise, which the angels sing to the honour of him that sits on the throne, v. 3. Observe, 1. How this song was sung; with zeal and fervency they cried aloud; and with unanimity they cried one to another, or with one another; they sang alternately, but in concert, and
Vol. iv.—F
