ou thunder forth Your judgments over me Lord. You shake all my bones with fear and trembling, and my soul is exceedingly afraid. I stand astonished; and I consider that, “If even the heavens are not pure in his eyes”,† if in angels You did find wickedness,† and did not spare even them, what will become of me? Stars fell from Heaven,† and what can I presume who am dust? They whose works seem commendable have fallen into the depths, and those who did eat the bread of angels,† I have seen delighting themselves with the husks of swine.†
There can be no holiness, if You, Lord, withdraw Your hand. No wisdom will help, if You cease to guide. No courage succeed, if You cease to defend. No purity is secure, if You do not protect it. No custody of our own can avail, if Your sacred watchfulness be not present. For, left to ourselves, we sink and perish; but being visited by You, we are raised up and live. We are truly unstable, but through You we are strengthened; we wax lukewarm, but by You we are inflamed.
Oh, how humbly and meanly ought I to think of myself! How ought I to esteem it as nothing, if I should seem to have anything good! With what profound humility ought I to submit myself to Your unfathomable
