once the sight of Judah's seer;
sweet the countless tongues united
to entrance the prophet's ear.
It is a Church of Ireland favourite on Trinity Sunday (hymn 316 in our Church Hymnal). This, no doubt, has something to do with the author, Richard Mant, from 1820 to 1848 a bishop in two Irish sees. Mant stood solidly within the Old High tradition, evident from his anti-Enthusiast 1812 Bampton Lectures, his rejection of Ritualism, and his affection for Anglicanism's native piety. His hymn, then, is another expression of Old High piety: such hymns will now be the subject of an occasional series on laudable Practice.
What particularly connects the hymn to Trinity Sunday? It does, after all, make no specific mention of the Holy Trinity or of the Three Persons of the Godhead. The answer lies in the scriptural passage contemplated by the hymn, the vision of the prophet Isaiah in the Temple (Isaiah 6). While not appointed as a lesson for Morning or Evening Prayer on Trinity Sunday in BCP 1662, Isaiah 6:1-8 would become the first lesson at Morning Prayer in the post-disestablishment Irish Prayer Book tradition. This reflects a long tradition of Trinitarian interpretation of the angelic anthem in Isaiah's vision:
Ambrose - 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, 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;
Cyril of Alexandria - 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;
Aquinas - And they praise ... the Trinity of persons: holy, holy, holy;
Calvin - The ancients quoted this passage when they wished to prove that there are three persons in one essence of the Godhead. I do not disagree with their opinion ... I have no doubt that the angels here describe One God in Three Persons, (and, indeed, it is impossible to praise God without also uttering the praises of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit).
Use of Mant's hymn on Trinity Sunday, therefore, gives expression to a consistent reading of the Isaiah 6, across the Christian centuries and traditions. The hymn also becomes a useful catechetical tool, inviting us to behold in the angelic anthem praise of the Most Holy Trinity, to be adored "world without end".
Related to this, when the Companion to Church Hymnal states that the identity of the 'seer' is "not obvious to the majority of worshippers", it should be regarded as a challenge to dramatically improve Scriptural literacy in our congregations!
The Trinity Sunday use of the hymn echoes other familiar words of praise for Anglicans, as the angelic hymn is also found in the Te Deum at Morning Prayer:
To thee all Angels cry aloud : the heavens, and all the powers therein.
To thee Cherubin and Seraphin : continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy : Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty : of thy glory.
The canticle explicitly sets the angelic anthem within the long tradition of Trinitarian interpretation of the 'thrice holy':
The Father : of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true : and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost : the Comforter.
To join our praises to those of the angelic host, of cherubin and seraphin, is therefore inherently to praise and glorify the Most Holy Trinity. In the words of the hymn:
With his seraph-train before him,
with his holy Church below,
thus conspire we to adore him,
bid we thus our anthem flow.
Mant's hymn and its use on Trinity Sunday is a quietly beautiful way of placing the church's Trinitarian praise alongside the prophet's vision. To praise and glorify the Most Holy Trinity, whether in Mant's hymn, in the Te Deum at Morning Prayer, or in the Sanctus at the Holy Communion, is to stand with Isaiah, beholding the glory of Lord, the One who is eternally Triune.
The opening words of the hymn have been the subject of some criticism over the year. In the words of the Companion to the Church Hymnal, "one might still question if the 'vision' really 'delighted' Isaiah, or did it fill him with a sense of guilt and inadequacy?".
This, however, misunderstands the nature of experiences of divine epiphany. To behold the glory of the Lord is to know both the heart's fulfilment and, precisely because of this, the need for profound penitence. Thus Moses turns aside to see the bush that was not burning, but was told by Yahweh, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy". Likewise, when Peter beheld the the "great multitude of fishes", Luke tells us that "he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord'. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken".
In beholding "the King, the Lord of hosts", the prophet Isaiah was both brought to penitence because his heart was purified by the vision glorious. Precisely because his soul beheld the glory of the Lord, he was moved to acknowledge that he was "a man of unclean lips". Something of this is reflected in the collect for Trinity Sunday. In it we "acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity", then pray that the Holy Trinity would "evermore defend us from all adversities", from the forces of sin and death with which we are too often entranced.
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