Angels lament, behold your God

Angels lament, behold your God. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).  The text by Coffin was in the Paris Breviary, 1736, and in Hymni Sacri Auctor Carolo Coffin (1736). It began ‘Lugete, pacis Angeli’, and was set for Friday Vespers. It proved attractive to translators, including Isaac Williams*, William John Blew*, Robert Campbell*, John David Chambers*, and David Thomas Morgan* (JJ, pp. 701-2). The compilers of the First Edition of A&M chose Chandler’s, from his Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837). They included it in the section ‘Hymns on the Passion’. In Chandler’s text of 1837 it had six stanzas:  Lament, ye saints, behold your God   Your sinful...