Commentaria in Isaiam
Sanchez adds that Isaias sinned in that, through fear of the king, he kept silent, and allowed him, already a leper, to dwell in the city, nor took care that he be driven out of the city according to the law, Leviticus 13:46. Hence he fittingly adds: “And I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips,” as if to say: I have become as one of the common people, who in so grave a case did not dare to mutter, whereas, the others being silent, I, as the herald of God, ought to have spoken and rebuked him fearlessly, as Elias and Eliseus rebuked Achab, Joram and other kings of Israel. But I have shown at verse 1 that this sin was small, or none at all. Œcolampadius impiously thinks the lips of Isaias were polluted: “Because,” he says, “man of himself can bring forth nothing but what is foul and full of filth.”
Morally, learn here that the knowledge of God begets humility in us: for he who sees God sees himself; he sees how far he is from God, how little, indeed how nothing he is; and the more clearly he sees God and himself, the more he admires and reveres God, and the more he lowers and despises himself. This, then, is a sign of a good spirit, as on the contrary it is a sign of an evil spirit if one swells up on this account, makes much of himself and his own things, thinks himself learned, holy, perfect, etc. So Abraham before the Lord: “I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes,” Genesis 18:27. So Moses, hearing God from the bush, “hid his face, for he durst not look at God,” Exodus 3:6.
So Tobias with his companions, having recognised the angel Raphael, “falling on their faces for three hours, blessed God,” Tobias 12:22. So Jeremias, hearing from God: “Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee,” etc., said: “Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child,” chap. 1, verse 6. So Daniel, seeing the Ancient of days on the throne, and thousands of thousands standing before him: “My spirit,” he says, “trembled, I Daniel was affrighted at these things, and the visions of my head troubled me,” chap. 7, verse 15. And chap. 10, verse 8, on seeing the angel: “There remained no strength in me, I fainted away, and I had no strength at all. And I heard the voice of his words: and when I heard, I lay in a consternation upon my face, and my face was close to the ground.” And Ezechiel, on seeing God upon the chariot of the Cherubim, fell upon his face, and as if in a swoon of mind, chap. 1. So the twenty-four ancients before the throne of God “fell down before him that sitteth on the throne, and adored him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory, and honour, and power.”
So St. Francis, lifted up in spirit, used to say: “Who art thou, Lord, and who am I? Thou art an abyss of essence, truth and glory; I am an abyss of nothingness, vanity and misery.”
AND I DWELL IN THE MIDST OF A PEOPLE THAT HATH UNCLEAN LIPS.—“Unclean,” that is, first, defiled, both by speech and by silence, as I have said; secondly, “unclean,” that is, profane and common, as if to say: My lips are consecrated to God: I ought therefore to speak sacred and divine things, as becomes a Prophet; but now, living with the people, I have learned from them to speak as they do, of worldly, vulgar and common things. Hence St. Jerome and Cyril here note how harmful, even to Saints and Prophets, is the company of worldly men, especially the wicked, which so defiled a great Prophet. Truly did the Wise Man say: “These three cannot but defile: the potter, a cart-wheel in deep mire, those who keep company with the wicked.” So St. Peter, living among the servants of the high priests, denied Christ; and God led Abraham out of Chaldea, lest he be defiled by the company of unbelievers.
Again St. Bernard: “Trifles,” he says, “in the mouth of a priest (and of a Prophet) are blasphemies. For the lips of the priest shall keep (ought to keep) knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts.”
AND MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE KING THE LORD OF HOSTS.—As if to say: Before, I made little of my sin; now, seeing the purity and holiness of God, and the Seraphim crying “Holy, holy,” etc., I see how impure and horrid this sin of mine is, and every other: just as if you see darkness and light together, sun and sewer, king and buffoon, you perceive the more how far the one is from the other: for “the eyes saw my imperfect being.”
It is asked whether this Angel was truly of the order of Seraphim. St. Dionysius, chap. 13 of the Celestial Hierarchy, from the teaching of his master Hierotheus, distinguishes the choirs of Angels, from Daniel 7:10, into Assistants, who always stand before God, and Ministers, who are sent forth. The Assistants, he teaches, are the four highest choirs of Angels, and they far surpass in multitude the lower five, who are Ministers: this Angel, therefore, since he was sent, was not truly of the order of Seraphim, but of some order of Ministers; yet he is called “Seraph,” either because he was enlightened and sent by some Seraph, or from his office, because he was sent to burn the lips of Isaias. The contrary, however, is truer, namely that he was truly of the choir of Seraphim. For hence the doctors and the Church prove that the ninth order of Angels is the Seraphim: for it cannot otherwise be proved from the Scriptures. So teach St. Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit, book 1, chap. 10, and many Scholastics, and the Apostle favours it, Hebrews 1:14, where he says that all are ministering spirits sent to minister. See what is said there.
AND IN HIS HAND A COAL, WHICH HE HAD TAKEN WITH THE TONGS FROM THE ALTAR.—For calculus the Hebrew is ritspa, in Greek anthrax, that is, a live coal, which is like a glowing stone, a carbuncle or pyropus. That it was a live coal is plain, because it was held with tongs and taken from the altar to burn the Prophet’s lips. So Apocalypse 8:5, and Ezechiel 10:9. The Syriac, Arabic, Forerius, Vatablus, Pagninus and recent interpreters render it a kindled coal, and so Damascene; for ritspa alludes by metathesis to saraph, to burn, kindle.
Secondly, however, St. Jerome renders ritspa as calculus, that is, a little stone or gem, with which version the other interpreters, namely Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, agree, says St. Jerome; the Septuagint render it anthrax, which signifies both carbuncle and coal. St. Jerome, epistle 143 to Damasus, interprets it as carbuncle, which is a gem of flaming and fiery colour; and adds: “whether we render it calculus or carbuncle, in the calculus the truth and rigour of the divine word, in the carbuncle the shining doctrine of the same, is clearly shown, according to that of Psalm 18: The commandment of the Lord is lightsome, enlightening the eyes.” Whence from retseph are derived ritspah and martsephet, which signifies a stone-strewn floor, or stone pavement; and in Canticles 3:10, where the Vulgate has “he paved the midst with charity,” the Hebrew is rutsaph, which the Septuagint render lithostroton, that is, paved with stone, and the Fifth Edition renders, he composed the midst of it with calculi (that is, carbuncles, say St. Ambrose, Theodoret and Nyssen). Wherefore our Alcazar, on Apocalypse 2:17, note 9, contends altogether that this calculus of Isaias was a carbuncle, and gives this sense: Isaias, he says, saw the throne which God has in the Christian Church; wherefore the Seraphim are the Apostles and apostolic men, who were to preach the Gospel, which, because it was of the highest difficulty and seemed like embracing fire, they took the coal timidly with tongs from the altar, that is, approached timidly the labours and persecutions of the Gospel; but when they had taken it and looked at it, they saw that it was not a coal but a carbuncle, because these labours and crosses for Christ, through the charity with which they were kindled and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, became to them most sweet and most precious. This sense is pious and moral, yet it is not literal, nor genuine, as Alcazar and Rupert would have it.
I say, then, that both are true: that this calculus was a kindled live coal, and that it was a calculus or carbuncle; for in the heavenly temple and altar, where Isaias saw these things, all things are precious, eternal and heavenly: therefore its coals are not of wood but of stone, that they may last forever; indeed gemlike, for such befit God. That heavenly fire, therefore, is fed with pyropes and carbuncles; for the carbuncle is the most precious of all gems. For a carbuncle that weighs a drachm is valued at sixty thousand aurei, that is, at more than four diamonds of the same weight. And although our carbuncle rejects our earthly fire, so that fire cannot heat it, as Pliny and Aristotle teach, Meteorologics, book 4, yet that heavenly carbuncle readily receives the heavenly fire of God. The Church favours this view, praying in the Mass: “O God, who didst cleanse the lips of Isaias with a burning coal.” It was therefore a calculus, but a burning one.