"An actual partaking of the sacrifice": the doctrine and piety of High Church Receptionism
Here then we have the distinct declaration of the Apostle that there is, in the holy Supper, not merely a commemoration, but a communion ... The worthy receiver therein spiritually eats of the flesh, and drinks of the blood of his blessed Redeemer; and, together with the revived and renewed remembrance of His Redeemer's sacrifice, he derives peculiar benefit from that sacrifice.
This is a key part of D'Oyly's insistence throughout the sermon that the alternative to the Roman doctrines of transubstantiation and the Eucharist as "an actual sacrifice" is not "that in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, nothing more is intended than a mere memorial of that Saviour who gave up His body, and shed His blood for us; that no character of a sacrament belongs to this holy institution". Against both understandings, D'Oyly sets forth what he affirms as normative Anglican teaching:
But while we reject, as utterly destitute of solid scriptural foundation, the doctrine of transubstantiation, which has been, and still is, so steadfastly maintained in the Romish Church, we shall by no means see reason to agree with those who contend that nothing more is intended in the Lord's Supper than a plain memorial of our Saviour's death. It is the more surprising that any Divines of the Church of England should have maintained this opinion, because, wherever this Church speaks of the holy rite, whether in her Liturgy, her Articles, or Homilies, she speaks of it as a sacrament, from which peculiar benefits and blessings are derived to the worthy receiver.
We have seen one aspect of this normative teaching, the spiritual feeding on the Lord's Body and Blood. Closely associated with this is the alternative to both "an actual sacrifice ... performed anew" and "the Lord's Supper is nothing more than a simple repast on bread and wine". That alternative is the traditional High Church motif of 'a feast upon a sacrifice':
But, in addition to these views of the nature of the Eucharist, we have also strong and probable grounds for believing, in common with many eminent divines, that it was designed to be a feast upon the sacrifice of Him who was the true passover sacrificed for us, and for all man kind ... When therefore the shadow gave way to the substance, when the true paschal Lamb was once offered up an offering for sin, it was natural to expect that some feast upon this great sacrifice would be instituted, bearing an analogy to that which had been so expressly and so particularly ordained amongst the Jews. Observe then how many circumstances combine to support this idea of the nature and purport of the Lord's Supper. Recollect, once more, the peculiar juncture selected for the institution, when our Lord was engaged with His disciples in partaking of the paschal supper. Consider the words employed, leading undoubtedly to the notion of a sacrifice, and to an actual partaking of the sacrifice, of the body broken, and the blood shed ... our Lord, in instituting this holy rite of the Eucharist, designed it to stand in the place of a feast upon that great and peculiar sacrifice, from which such unspeakable benefits are derived to all mankind.
What is striking here is the richness of this Eucharistic teaching, richness both in the affirmation of the spiritual feeding, "spiritually eats of the flesh, and drinks of the blood", and in the account of a feasting upon the sacrifice, "an actual partaking of the sacrifice". In other words, pre-1833 High Church Receptionism was not a minimalist, dry teaching, but a rich and vibrant emphasis, from which flowed a lively, native sacramental piety. In the closing words of D'Oyly's sermon:
Let us hope that, by presenting ourselves with hearts duly prepared, at the table of our Lord, to celebrate the solemn memorial of the sacrifice made for all our sins, we may be enabled spiritually to eat the flesh of our blessed Redeemer, and to drink His blood; may become one with Christ and Christ with us; may be sealed anew into the covenant of grace; may obtain for ourselves in a peculiar manner the benefits of His passion, and receive an earnest and pledge of the forgiveness of our past transgressions.
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