From a 1670 Good Friday sermon by Matthew Hole, at the cathedral church of Saint Peter, Exeter. Hole provides an example of the piety which could surround Good Friday in Restoration Anglicanism:
He wore a Crown of Thorns, only that we might wear a Crown of Gold; and those drops of blood which his enemies drew from him, are turn'd into so many pearls to bestud and adorn ours; that scarlet Robe which the Jews put on him, dy'd as it were in his own blood, serves to hide our shame, and to cover for us a multitude of sins; that bitter Cup, which he drunk off to the very dregs, is our Nectar, and a glorious Potion of immortality; the Vinegar and Gall, which made him to faint, is become our most reviving Cordial; his Cross, the cursed instrument of his death, is to us a Tree of life, which bears no other fruit than that of knowledge and eternal happiness; his agonies are our triumphs, and his bloody sweat the most Sovereign Balsam to cure our wounds; the Spear that pierc'd our Saviours side open'd there a Fountain for sin and for uncleanness; he liv'd and died with thieves and robbers, and was numbered among transgressors, only that we might live with Saints, and sing forth his praises with Myriads of Angels.(The picture is stained glass from Exeter Cathedral.)
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