The Preface Continued

I am truly amazed when I consider that he who so lately was visible and present with us in his mortal body is still, even after death, most wonderfully granted the same imperial palaces, honors, and praises as before, although at death natural reason rejects everything superfluous as unfitting. And further, when I raise my thoughts to the very vault of heaven and there contemplate his thrice-blessed soul in communion with God himself, freed from every mortal and earthly garment and shining in a radiant robe of light; and when I see that it is no longer bound to the passing seasons and occupations of mortal life, but is honored with an ever-blooming crown and the immortality of an endless and blessed existence, I stand as if without speech or reason, unable to utter a single phrase. Instead I condemn my own weakness and impose silence on myself, and I hand over the task of praising him worthily to one who is better able: to him who, being the immortal God and the true Word, alone has power to confirm his own sayings. [a]