July 11

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.—Isaiah 6:5.

Then said I, Woe is me. He is not lifted up with the dignity, that he should be honored with such a vision of God; but on the contrary, is struck with humble, holy fear: Oh, I am undone! This constitutes much of the exercise of souls admitted nearest to God; even this astonishment and admiration that such as they should be regarded and raised to that height, and holy fear in a sense of their unholiness. When the blessed Virgin heard a voice very much to her own advantage, instead of rising in her own conceit upon it, she was troubled, and marvelled what manner of salutation it should be, and was struck with fear, so that the angel found it needful to say, Fear not.

Illusions and deceits of spirit of this kind, can not be better distinguished from true manifestations of God, than by this, that they breed pride and presumption in the heart; while true senses, and joys, and discoveries of love, in what kind soever, do most powerfully humble.

For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. The mother and nurse of pride, is ignorance of God. A small glance of him will make the best of men abhor themselves, and still the nearer sight of him, the lower conceit will there be of self, and the deeper sense of impurity and vileness. This tells us, though we hear and speak of God, alas! we know him not.

I am a man of polluted lips. He mentions this the rather because he heard that song, which he would have joined with, but durst not, because of polluted lips. Thus we must confess we are polluted all over, but much of our pollution breaks out by the lips, yet, commonly, we think not on it.

I am undone. We could not indeed bear much, could not see God and live; therefore he veils himself. But surely we might see much more that we do, and live the better for it, the more humbly and holily. Our pollutions hinder and unfit us, as he implies when he says, A man of polluted lips. But oh, that we saw so much of him as to see this pollution, which makes us so unworthy and so unfit to see him.

He first cries, I am a man of unclean lips, and then adds, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. This is the true method; there can be no right sense of pollutions about us, but that which begins with a sense of those within us. Few men reflect much on themselves; or, if they do, they view themselves by a false light.

Polluted lips. This he says in regard of the voice he heard. And with regard to the much irreverence with which we mention God, both ministers and people, as much of all our heart pollutions have their vent this way, so the promise of sanctifying his people runs much on this. Zephaniah 3:9. They of a pure lip shall offer. All are of the holy order, a royal priesthood, and through sanctified lips, as the censer, still they offer incense of prayer and praise. He is a perfect man that offends not in word. Commonly, by much speaking, there is much pollution: In many words there wants not sin. Therefore let your speech be always seasoned with salt. Now, many speeches need much salt, otherwise some part will be rotten, at least unsavory. Much of the sin of the land consists in this: there are few companies where God is not dishonored and provoked by your communication; and till this be laid to heart, judgments will multiply and grow instead of decreasing. Few, even of those who fear the Lord, speak often one to another, in a strain that God delights, not only to hearken to, but to write down and register for their good.

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. We infect each other when we meet. There is little converse that a man returns the better by, yea, by the most he is the worse: he brings back often more pollution, more folly and vanity by most companies and discourses. But we see here, that impurity humbly acknowledged, is graciously removed.