"Feast us on thy sacrifice": the Wesleys as an expression of 18th century Anglican Eucharistic piety

Ryan N. Danker's article in the latest New Directions - 'The Wesley Brothers and the Eucharist' - is a marvellous reminder of this "highly developed and beautifully rich tradition of Eucharistic piety and a thoroughly Anglican understanding of Christ's presence made known to us in the Eucharistc feast".  What is particularly significant is Danker's emphasis on the Wesleys' Eucharistic theology and spirituality being an expression of "Anglican piety".  Thus, "The Eucharistic hymns of Charles Wesley are one of the great treasures of Anglicanism".  

The sacramental theology and piety of the Wesleys, then, stands as a rebuke to those who would condemn later 18th century Anglicanism as (at best) deficient in both Eucharistic theology and piety.  The Wesleys tell us otherwise, manifesting the sacramental vibrancy within Georgian Anglicanism.  We get a sense of this from an entry in John Wesley's Journal for 1785:

May 15. (Whit-Sunday.) The service at the Cathedral began at eleven, and lasted till three. It concluded a little sooner, by my assisting at the Lord's Supper, at the request of the Clergymen.

A service lasting four hours because of the number of the communicants.  As F.R. Bolton (who quotes this extract from Wesley) notes in The Caroline Tradition in the Church of Ireland, this was a common occurrence, evidenced both by contemporaries and Preachers' Books. In addition to this, of course, we must note the popularity of High Church manuals for communicants throughout the 18th century.  It was this rich and vibrant sacramental tradition in which the Wesleys stood and to which they gave expression.

Danker points to the particular influence of Daniel Brevint on the Eucharistic theology of the Wesleys, indicative of how they were shaped by conventional High Church sacramental views.  Alongside Brevint, we might also point to the importance of the 'feast upon a sacrifice' motif beloved of Daniel Waterland and a constant High Church teaching well into the 19th century (associated with the Hackney Phalanx and Newman, late into his Anglican phase).  Waterland took the phrase from Cambridge Platonist Ralph Cudworth, defending Cudworth against Johnson's Non-juror inspired 'unbloody sacrifice' approach:

To represent the sacrifice of Christ merely as a sin offering, would be representing nothing but the melancholy and dismal part of it, which had not the sweet odour, the sweet-smelling savour accompanying it. Dr. Cudworth ’s notion of a sacrificial feast goes upon the more delightful view, as St. Paul's also does in the text before referred to: therefore there is no more room for objecting, in this respect, against our learned author, than there is for objecting against the blessed Apostle. 

The influence of this characteristic High Church emphasis is evident throughout the Wesleys' Hymns on the Lord's Supper:

This eucharistic feast. 

Our every want supplies; 

And still we by his death are bless'd. 

And share his sacrifice. 

By faith his flesh we eat (Hymn 4).

O Thou paschal Lamb of God, 

Feed us with thy flesh and blood; 

Life and strength thy death supplies, 

Feast us on thy sacrifice (Hymn 35).

Bless'd be the Lord, for ever bless'd. 

Who bought us with a price; 

And bids his ransom'd servants feast 

On his great sacrifice (Hymn 65).

But what of the spiritual warmth of the Wesleys: surely it contrasted with a much more sombre Anglican spirituality?  No, it did not.  The warm sacramental piety of the Wesleys was another expression of characteristic High Church piety. Consider The Whole Duty of Man, one of the most popular devotional manuals throughout the century:

When thou art about to receive the Consecrated Bread and Wine, remember that God now offers to seal to thee that New Covenant made with Mankind in his Son. For since he gives that his Son in the Sacrament, he gives with him all the benefits of that Covenant, to wit, pardon of Sins, Sanctifying grace, and a Title to an eternal inheritance. And here be astonish 'd at the infinite goodness of God, who reaches out to thee so precious a treasure. 

Likewise, from an 1827 sermon of the Hackney Phalanx's George D'Oyly:

Thither let them bring, what all may bring with them if they will, some feelings of devout affection towards God, some emotions of sorrow for their many errors and miscarriages, some sincere resolutions of amending their conduct for the future; and He who wills the death of no sinner, who calls to those who are laden with their sins to come to Him and He will give them rest - He will in His gracious mercy, approve their services, however imperfect, will accept their tribute, however insufficient. He will gladly receive them prostrate before His altar, and will grant unto them pardon and grace. He will enable them so spiritually to eat the flesh of their Redeemer, and to drink His blood, that their devout affections will he quickened, their good dispositions strengthened, their holy ardour improved.

The warmth which animated the Wesleys' Eucharistic hymns was the same warmth encouraged and experienced in the High Church mainstream of Georgian Anglicanism.

Practice, doctrine, piety.  The approach of the Wesleys to the Sacrament was an expression of a High Church sacramental teaching and spirituality, at once popular, robust, and vibrant.  To rightly rejoice in the rich Eucharistic piety of the Wesleys is to necessarily also rejoice in mainstream 18th century Anglican sacramental piety, for they are one and the same.