WE are chiefly bound to praise thee for thy Son JESUS CHRIST our LORD: for he is the very Paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world; who by his death hath destroyed death, and by his rising to life again, hath restored to us everlasting life. Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD GOD of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O LORD most high. Amen!
The Homily for _Good Friday_.
Ye that pass by, behold the Man, The man of griefs condemn’d for you; The Lamb of GOD for sinners slain, Weeping to _Calvary_ pursue.
His sacred Limbs they stretch, they tear; With nails they fasten to the wood His sacred Limbs, expos’d and bare, Or only cover’d with his blood.
See there! his temples crown’d with thorns, His bleeding hands extended wide, His streaming feet transfixt and torn, The fountain gushing from his side.
Oh thou dear suffering Son of GOD, How doth thy heart to sinners move! Help us to catch thy precious blood, Help us to taste thy dying love.
The earth could to her centre quake, Convuls’d whilst her creator dy’d; O may our inmost nature shake, And bow, with JESUS crucify’d!
At thy last gasp, the graves display’d Their horrors to the upper skies; O that our souls might burst the shade, And, quicken’d by thy death, arise!
The rocks could feel thy pow’rful death, And tremble, and asunder part; O rend with thy expiring breath The harder marble of our heart!