"Begun and completed in love": 'High and Dry' at the Sacrament?

Further extracts from Vicesimus Knox's Considerations on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper (1799), recommended by Horsley.

What is particularly striking about these passages is the emphasis on the emotions, a reminder that 'High and Dry' should not be taken to mean that a lively piety of the heart was discouraged, particularly regarding reception of the Sacrament.

Not withstanding the cold and comfortless representations of the detractors from the dignity and benefit of Sacramental Communion, it is certain that the whole of the tranfaction is begun and completed in love. It is a delightful exercise of the finest affections or sensibilities of the human soul. The name Eucharist signifies the expression of gratitude, always a pleasing office, and more especially delightful when, shewn to the God who is love itself, and multiplies his benefits in proportion as they are gratefully acknowledged. This holy feast after the Sacrifice, the great Sacrifice once made, as a full, perfect, and sufficient oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, is a luxurious banquet for the soul, in which all its refined appetites are completely gratified ...

Man is so constituted, that unless he is impelled by some affection, he becomes inactive and listless, though his understanding at the same time be convinced of the propriety of strenuous exertion. The spur of inclination is necessary to religious as well as moral, social, civil, or political activity. It is pride, avarice, and voluptuousness, which fill our streets, our emporiums, our theatres, with all the bustle of business and alacrity of motion. A more refined affection than these, devotional love, must fill our churches and crowd our tables of Sacramental Communion; and it is right to excite an ardour of this kind to counteract the ardours which the world and its vanities never fail to kindle.

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