Third Sermon for the First Sunday in November: On the Different Kinds of Seraphim. and Upon it Stood the Servaphim.—is. Vi. 2.*

I do not suppose you have forgotten that the sermon to-day is to be on the Seraphim, of whom the Prophet Isaias speaks, when, after testifying that he saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, he added, “ Upon it stood the Seraphim.” The name “Seraphim,” as you have often heard, dearest brethren, designates one of the nine choirs of heavenly spirits, and indeed the noblest and highest of all. However, it seems to me to be used in this place in quite a different signification, especially because the Seraphim are here represented as but two in number, whereas we know that the heavenly Seraphim are exceedingly many. And if it be lawful for “every man to abound in his own sense” (Rom. xiv. 5) in this matter, I would recognise in these two Seraphim the two kinds of intelligent creatures, the angelic, namely, and the human. Do not be surprised to hear me declare that man has been made a Seraph: remember that the Creator and Lord of the Seraphim has been made man. To thy confusion, O proud spirit, who, created amongst the angels, wast not found worthy to stand amongst the angels, to thy confusion, behold our King has come down to fashion new angels from the earth. And that thou mayest be the more consumed with envy and the more tormented with jealous fury, it is not any ordinary angels He has descended to fashion, or angels of any of the lower choirs, but Seraphim. For listen to what He has said Himself: “I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled ? ” (Luke xii. 49). He desires, therefore, to form Seraphim, and to make them stand in the place from which thou hast fallen. ‘“‘ Upon it stood the Seraphim,” says the Prophet. Why then didst not thou, ‘O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning ” (Is. xiv. 12), why didst thou not “stand in the truth” (John viii. 44), unless it was that thou wast not really a Seraph at all? For the name “ Seraphim ” signifies something ardent or burning. Thou, O wretched one, didst possess light enough, but heat thou hadst none. How much better would it have been for thee hadst thou made thyself a fire-bearer (ignifer) rather than a light-bearer (lucifer), and hadst not, through an excessive desire of shining, as thou wast so cold thyself, chosen also the region of cold? “I will exalt my throne,” thou saidst, “ above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the height of the clouds ” (Is. xiv. 13, 14). Why so much haste, O Lucifer, to “rise in the morning” ? Wherefore wouldst thou glory above the stars which thou seemest to surpass in the brightness of thy splendour? Thy glorying will be short-lived. For thou shalt be quickly followed by that Sun of justice which thou, with foolish simulation, boastest to be thyself, and, overtaken by His light and heat, thou shalt be utterly annihilated and beseen nomore in theheavens. Vainlyalso dost thou

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SERAPHIM 357 design in the “man of sin” whom thou shalt assume * to anticipate the Lord when He shall make His second advent, at the end of the world, as the rising of the true Sun of justice, and to be “lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped ” : vainly, I repeat, because then, as at the beginning, He “shall destroy thee with the brightness of His coming ” (2 Thess. ii. 3; 4,).

How much wiser and happier was the holy Baptist ! For be too was a lucifer, not by his own presumption, however, lest he like thee should be condemned as a thief and a robber, but by the authority of God the Father, Who appointed him Precursor of the Lord. “ Behold,” He says by his Prophet, “ I send My angel before Thy face who shall prepare Thy way before Thee ” (Luke vii. 27, Mal. iii. r). There is another allusion to the Baptist’s office in the Psalms, “I have prepared a lamp for My Anointed” (Ps. cxxxi. 17). For John was indeed a lamp, “a burning and a shining light ” (John v. 35), and the Jews “ were willing for a while to rejoice in his light ” (ibid.), yet not the Baptist himself. Do you inquire the reason? ‘‘ Ask himself, let him speak for himself ”? (John ix. 21). “The friend of the Bridegroom,” he answers, “‘standeth and rejoiceth with joy—not in himself but—because of the Bridegroom’s voice ” (John iii. 29). John therefore stands :

he is not like a reed that is shaken by the wind (Matt. xi. 7). He stands because he is a friend, he stands because he burns: just as the Seraphim also are represented as standing. He is in truth “ the friend of the Bridegroom ” who envieth not the glory of “the Bridegroom coming out of his bride-chamber”’ (Ps. xviii. 6), but prepares His path and proclaims His grace, so that he himself may be found worthy to receive of His fulness (John i. 16). And John therefore shines: he shines the more brightly the more intensely he burns, and he shines the more truly in proportion as he the less desires to shine. Faithful lucifer, who comes not to emulate the Sun of justice but rather to herald His glory! “ I am not the Christ ” (John i. 20), he confessed, “There cometh after me One mightier than I, the latchet of Whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose”’ (Mark i. 7). Again he said, “ I indeed baptise you with water, but He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire ” (Luke iii. 16). As if this faithful light-bearer should say in clearer language: ‘‘ Wherefore do you gaze with such astonishment upon my brightness? For I am not the Sun. You shall find Him to be very different from me, so different, that in comparison with His splendour I am rather darkness than light. I am as it were the morning star, I besprinkle you with the dawn-dew ; but He will send forth His rays of burning heat to dissolve the ice and to dry up the marshes and to warm them that are frozen, and He will clothe the poor as with a garment.” Neither is there any discrepancy between the word of the Judge and the voice of the Precursor, since the fire promised by John was made clearly manifest by Christ when He said, ‘“‘I am come to cast fire on the

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SERAPHIM 359 earth” (Luke xii. 49). You will tell me, perhaps, that if there is warmth in fire so too is there splendour. I am not disposed to deny this: although it seems to me that of the two properties, heat is the more essential to fire. But let us rather listen to the Lord, and learn from Him what is that quality of fire which He most . particularly recommends. “I am come,” He says,

“to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?” Thou knowest now, my brother, what it is He wills. But know likewise that there is “ life in His good will ” (Ps. xxix. 6), and that the “ servant who knew the will of his Lord, and prepared not himself and did not according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Luke xii. 47). Why art thou so impatient to shine? The time has not yet come when “the just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. xiii. 43). In the meanwhile, this longing to shine is hurtful to thee, it would be much better to burn. But if thou hast so strong a desire for splendour, at least make sure to be in fact what thou wishest to appear. Seek first the fervour of charity and doubt not that splendour also shall be added unto thee (Matt. vi. 33). Otherwise thou shalt labour in vain, because splendour without fervour is nothing worth. That is only borrowed light, or rather a mere simulation of light, which does not proceed from fire. Now, thou canst not use for long that which thou possessest merely as aloan. And when thou shalt lose it, thy confusion shall be all the greater for having seemed to appropriate what did not belong to thee. The moon, so we are informed, shines without heat, but its brightness is a brightness borrowed from the sun; and therefore it changes so frequently, yea, so

-l constantly, “ and never continueth in the same state” (Job xiv. 2). Hence it is written, “ A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun, but the fool is changed as the moon” (Ecclus. xxvii. 12)—that fool who lost his wisdom in his beauty (Ezech. xxviii. 17), that is to say, who lost his heat in his splendour.*

Lucifer, then, fell like lightning from heaven (Luke x. 18), whilst “upon it stood the Seraphim.” Yes, my brethren, the Seraphim have remained standing in heaven, because “charity never falleth away ” (x Cor. xiii. 8). They stand rapt and fixed in the contemplation of Him Who sitteth on the throne. They stand in an eternal immutability, in an immutable eternity. Thou, O impious one, didst endeavour to sit, with the result that thy “feet were moved and thy steps unsteadied ” (Ps. lxxii. 2). It is only the Son of God Who may sit on that throne, the Lord of Sabaoth, judging all things with serenity (Wisdom xii. 18.) To sit thereon is the exclusive privilege of the Divine Trinity “Who only hath immortality” (x Tim. vi. 16), “ with Whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration ” (James i. 17). The Seraphim stand immutable indeed, but in their measure, and not in comparison with the immutability of God. They stand, I say, with eyes and thoughts directed to Him upon Whom they desire to look (x Peter i. 12). He who presumed to sit manifested a desire to be content with himself. Hence he hungered and still hungers after malice alone, because this alone he possesses of himself. ‘‘ When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father thereof ” (John viii. 44). What you hear con-

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SERAPHIM 361 cerning deceitful words understand as applying also to malicious actions. And although Satan takes an evil satisfaction in evil, he shall never be able to find full contentment even in wickedness. Therefore none is seated save the Sovereign Trinity Which alone possesses life in Itself. It alone is self-existent, and consequently is alone truly existent. It alone enjoys Itself,* alone needs nothing outside Itself, is alone self-sufficing.

(Translator.)