27. Of the praises sung by the Holy angels in heaven

' In conspectu angelorum psallam iibir " / will sins to thee in the sisht of the angels^ supreme ! O God worthy of all praise ! Creator of all things, of Ano^els and of men ! how long shall 1 tarry sojourning on earth, far removed from thee and all thy holy angels in heaven ? Poor and wretched creature as I am, how long shall I eat with -men the bread of toil and of sorrow 'i How long shall I be deprived of the bread of angels, — that food so exo o quisite, containing '• all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste.*"

2. O Lord, when shall I hear the sound of Thy praises sung by Thy holy angels in heaven ; as the blessed apostle John when in exile, heard the voices of many angels singing together, — " Holy, Holy, Holy ?"t Oh that I were one of that holy company, and had a voice like unto theirs ! Oh how willingly would I praise Thee in company with them; beyond the loudest Canticles in heaven would I sing thy praise and magnify Thy holy name to all eternity !

Oh ye Cherubim and Seraphim, how sweetly, how beautifully, how fervently, how excellently ye sing those joyous hymns in presence of your God, without lassitude, without fatigue, without cessation in eternal felicity !

3. To me, therefore, all human accent appears harsh ; ever)- song, uiiharmonious ; every psalm spiritless and dry ; every music disagreeable ; every instrument out of tune ; every joy appears extreme sadness ; every laughter, mourning ; every kind of meat and drink, insipid and tasteless ; all flesh, so much grass ; all wine, gall and vinegar ; all honey, poison ; every thing pleasant, disagreeable ; all beauty, an object of disgust ; every ornament, so much deformity ; all honour and glory, smoke and vanity ; everything precious and valuable, contemptible and disgusting ; — in one word, all things appear as nothing in comparison with life eternal, glory without end, and never ceasing joy in the presence of God and His angels ; who day and night for ever sing in highest note, the praises of the holy and the glorious Trinity.

4. Since then I am unable to soar aloft to these sublime and heavenly canticles, or fully to comprehend them, I bewail my sad fate, and despise myself before God and men, — bending my knees and humbly asking pardon : — for in truth all my works are nothing, O I^ord, without Thy grace and Thy mercy, which in so great bounty. Thou dost display in all Thy creatures without limit of number or measure. '• O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God !"* how profound and how just are Thy judgments from age to age, upon the good and the bad, — the grateful and the ungrateful, — upon the pious and the impious : so that no one can fathom Thy o o words ; no one can with justice, complain of events that happen unexpectedly in the course of human affairs. Wherefore be Thou ever blessed. 0 my God !