A History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist by Darwell Stone M.A.

V

The accession of William and Mary in 1689 led to the formation of the religious body separated from the Church of England known as the Nonjurors. Archbishop Sancroft of Canterbury and eight other bishops refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new king and queen. Three of these bishops died shortly afterwards. The rest, including Archbishop Sancroft, were deprived of their sees by process of law. At the same time about four hundred of the clergy were deprived of their benefices. The Nonjurors included very many of the best men in the Church of England; and the separation caused a grievous loss to the Church.

An excellent instance of teaching about the Holy Eucharist current both among the Nonjurors and among some of those who remained in the Church of England may be found in the book by John Johnson, Vicar of Cranbrook in Kent, entitled The Unbloody Sacrifice and Altar, Unvailed and Supported, in which the Nature of the Eucharist is explained according to the Sentiments of the Christian Church in the four first Centuries. Johnson had previously published The Propitiatory Oblation in the Holy Eucharist in 1710. The first edition of the first part of his larger and more elaborate book, The Unbloody Sacrifice, was published in 1714, and the first edition of the second part in 1718; the second edition appeared in 1724, while Johnson, who died in 1725, was still alive. Johnson himself was not a Nonjuror, but took the oaths and remained in possession of his benefice to the end of his life. He was on friendly terms with the leading Nonjurors, and his doctrinal position appears to have been the same as theirs. His definition of sacrifice is as follows:—

“Sacrifice is, 1. some material thing, either animate or inanimate, offered to God, 2. for the acknowledging the dominion and other attributes of God, or for procuring divine blessings, especially remission of sin, 3. upon a proper altar (which yet is rather necessary for the external decorum than for the internal perfection of the sacrifice), 4. by a proper officer, and with agreeable rites, 5. and consumed or otherwise disposed of in such a manner as the Author of the sacrifice has appointed.”

Johnson maintains at great length that the five points specified are necessary to sacrifice; and that the Eucharist has them all, and is therefore a “proper sacrifice”. He states:—

“That material bread and wine, as the sacramental body and blood of Christ, were by a solemn act of oblation in the Eucharist offered to Almighty God in the primitive Church, and that they were so offered by Christ Himself in the institution”;

“That the Eucharistical bread and wine, or body and blood, are to be offered for the acknowledgment of God’s dominion and other attributes, and for procuring divine blessings, especially remission of sins”;

“That the Communion Table is a proper altar”;

“That bishops and priests are the only proper officers for the solemn offering and consecrating of the Christian Eucharist”;

“That the sacrifice of the Eucharist is rightly consumed by being solemnly eaten and drunk by the priest, clergy, and people.”

In the course of this long discussion Johnson describes the Eucharist as an “expiatory” and “propitiatory,” as well as a “proper,” sacrifice. For instance, he says:—

“The other end of this sacrifice is to procure divine blessings, and especially pardon of sin. In the first respect it is propitiatory, in the second expiatory, by virtue of its principle, the grand sacrifice.”

The subject of the book, as the name denotes, is the sacrifice in the Eucharist, not the Eucharistic presence; but the treatment of the doctrine of the sacrifice naturally involves some consideration of the doctrine of the presence also. Johnson says many times that the elements are after consecration the “body and blood” of Christ, or His “spiritual body and blood,” or “sacramental body and blood,” or “Eucharistical body and blood”. But he further explains that Christ does not “personally” or “literally” “offer Himself in the Eucharist”; that he is not “personally there present in His human nature”; and that the consecrated bread and wine are His “very body and blood” “not in substance, but in power and effect,” or “in inward life and spirit”. Thus, in one passage he writes:—

“That which renders the Eucharist the most excellent and valuable sacrifice that was ever offered except the personal sacrifice of Christ, is this, that the bread and wine then offered are in mystery and inward power, though not in substance, the body and blood of Christ. This raises the dignity of the Christian sacrifice above those of the law of Moses and all that were ever offered by mere men. As it is natural bread and wine, it is the sacrifice of Melchizedek and of the most ancient philosophers: as it is the sacrifice of the sacramental body and blood of Christ, it is the most sublime and divine sacrifice that men or angels can offer.”

Johnson then held the consecrated elements to be the body and blood of Christ in virtue and mystery and power and effect, but not actually. That this virtual presence was conferred at consecration, and permanently bestowed on the elements, he thought proved by the language in which writers of antiquity refer to the Sacrament, by the ancient methods of administration, and by the practice of the primitive Church in reserving it.

“They believed the Eucharist to be made the body and blood, not by the faith of the communicant, but by the power of the Holy Ghost, or divine benediction, imparted to it by means of the invocation (I mean perfectly and finally imparted by this means, not exclusively of the words of institution and the oblation). And this I suppose fully appears from those authorities above cited; and, if any doubt of it, I must desire him to give himself the leisure of reviewing the passages produced to show that the ancients esteemed the symbols to be made the body and blood by the supervening energy of the Spirit, and those under the last head, which prove that they thought the words of institution, the oblation, and invocation to be effectual for rendering the elements the spiritual mysterious body and blood. And this further appears from their way of distributing the Communion, which has before been mentioned. The administrator affirms what he gives to be the body or blood without any certain knowledge whether the receiver had faith or not; the receiver answers ‘Amen,’ and by this gives his assent and consent to the affirmation of the administrator, before he had actually received what was held forth to him. And indeed, if the Eucharist were not the body and blood before distribution, it could not be made so by any post-fact of the communicants; for faith can give existence to nothing, cannot alter the nature of things. But I apprehend that this may be further proved from the practice of the primitive Church in reserving some part of the Eucharistical bread and wine; for this proves not only that they thought it the body and blood without any respect to the faith of the receiver, but that its consecration was permanent and remained after the holy action was at an end. What was not received by any at the Holy Table could not there be made the body and blood by the faith of the communicant; and yet, if they did not believe it to be the body and blood, for what purpose should they reserve it?”

In a postscript to the preface to the second part of The Unbloody Sacrifice, dated 14th June, 1716, Johnson denies in very vehement language an insinuation that it was his practice to elevate the elements after consecration.

“Dr. Wise slily insinuates that it is my practice to elevate the bread and wine. And it is true that I did sometimes, about four or five years ago, in the act of consecration lift up the bread and wine higher than usual, that the people might see the bread broken and the cup taken into my hand as the rubric directs, and for no other reason, some people who seemed desirous to see the holy action sitting at a great distance from the Lord’s Table in this very large church. But I never elevated the elements after consecration; nay, I believe it horrible superstition in those that do it, if any such there be; and I do further solemnly declare it to be my sentiment that to elevate and adore the Sacrament according to the practice of the Church of Rome is downright idolatry.”

Like Eucharistic doctrine to that maintained in Johnson’s writings is found also in a treatise by Robert Nelson entitled The Great Duty of Frequenting the Christian Sacrifice, published in 1707, in which he regards the Eucharistic sacrifice as a presentation to God the Father of the consecrated bread and wine as the symbols of the body and blood of Christ, and so a means of imploring His favour by pleading the merits of the passion. Nelson, as a layman, held no office which necessitated his taking the oath of allegiance; but he felt unable to recognise William and Mary as lawful sovereigns, and after some hesitation he threw in his lot in Church matters also with the Nonjurors. Eventually, however, though he never ceased to hold the right of the descendants of King James II. to the throne, he conformed to the Established Church, and he received the Holy Communion from the hands of Archbishop Sharp of York in 1710. He died in 1715.

During the years from 1716 to 1725 the correspondence between the Nonjurors and the bishops of the Greek Church, already mentioned in connection with the East, took place. A list of “proposals” made by the Nonjurors, dated 18th August, 1716, contained a statement of points of agreement and disagreement between them and the Easterns. Among the points of disagreement was included:—

“Though they [the Nonjurors] believe a divine mystery in the Holy Eucharist through the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the elements, whereby the faithful do verily and indeed receive the body and blood of Christ, they believe it yet to be after a manner which flesh and blood cannot conceive. And; seeing no sufficient ground from Scripture or tradition to determine the manner of it, are for leaving it indefinite and undetermined; so that every one may freely, according to Christ’s own institution and meaning, receive the same in faith, and may also worship Christ in spirit as verily and indeed present without being obliged to worship the sacred symbols of His presence.”

In reply to the objections of the Greek bishops to this statement, the Nonjurors in a document completed on 19th May, 1722, said:—

“As to their patriarchal lordships’ sentiment maintaining the bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist being changed after consecration into the natural body and blood of our Saviour, nothing of the elements remaining excepting the bare accidents void of substance, we can by no means agree with their lordships’ doctrine, such a corporal presence, which they call Transubstantiation, having no foundation in Scripture, and being by implication, and sometimes plainly, denied by the most celebrated fathers of the primitive Church. As to the Scripture, it is true our Blessed Saviour calls the Eucharistic bread and wine His body and blood; but that these words are not to be restrained to a literal sense we may collect from other passages of Scripture, where our Saviour calls Himself a door and a vine; and in other places of Holy Writ He is called the Lamb of God and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. All which texts we doubt not but the Oriental Church will allow must be construed in a metaphorical sense; and, if these places are to be figuratively interpreted, why not the other at the institution of the Holy Eucharist, which, if restrained to the letter, is no less shocking than the rest? Farther, St. Paul calls the Eucharistic element bread, even after consecration, when it was to be received (1 Cor. 11:28). And now to allege some testimonies from the primitive fathers. … Pope Gelasius … plainly declares, the substance and nature of the bread and wine remains after consecration. It is true he then tells us, the elements are changed into a divine thing, that is, raised to a divine efficacy by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Which change we most willingly confess, namely, that there is a mystic virtue and supernatural force transfused upon the Eucharistic elements by the priest’s pronouncing the words of institution and his prayer for the descent of the Holy Ghost.”

In 1717 some of the Nonjurors published an edition of the First Prayer Book of King Edward VI. with some alterations; and in 1718 this was followed by the publication of A Communion Office taken partly from Primitive Liturgies and partly from the First English Reformed Common-Prayer-Book: Together with Offices for Confirmation and the Visitation of the Sick. The publication of these books proved the occasion for a division of the Nonjurors into the Usagers, who adopted the use of them, and those who kept to the Prayer Book of the Church of England, avoiding the name of the actual reigning sovereign. In the Book of Book of 1717 the Prayer for the Church, the Prayer of Consecration, and the Prayer of Oblation are identical with those in the First Prayer Book of King Edward VI. In the Book of 1718, besides other alterations, the Prayer for the Church was placed after the Consecration and Oblation, the invocation of the Holy Ghost was placed after the words of institution, and the words “these Thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ,” were altered to “this sacrifice, that He may make this bread the body of Thy Christ, and this cup the blood of Thy Christ”. The whole piece between the Sanctus and the Prayer for the Church was as follows:—

“Holiness is Thy nature and Thy gift, O eternal King. Holy is Thine only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom Thou hast made the worlds; holy is Thine ever-blessed Spirit, who searcheth all things, even the depths of Thine infinite perfection. Holy art Thou, Almighty and merciful God; Thou createdst man in Thine own image, broughtest him into Paradise, and didst place him in a state of dignity and pleasure; and when he had lost his happiness by transgressing Thy command, Thou of Thy goodness didst not abandon and despise him. Thy providence was still continued, Thy law was given to revive the sense of his duty, Thy prophets were commissioned to reclaim and instruct him. And when the fulness of time was come, Thou didst send Thine only-begotten Son to satisfy Thy justice, to strengthen our nature, and renew Thine image within us. For these glorious ends Thine eternal Word came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Ghost, born of the Blessed Virgin, conversed with mankind, and directed His life and miracles to our salvation. And when His hour was come to offer the propitiatory sacrifice upon the cross, when He, who had no sin Himself, mercifully undertook to suffer death for our sins, in the same night that He was betrayed, He took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is My body, which is given for you: do this in remembrance of Me.

“Here the people shall answer, Amen.

“Then shall the priest say:—

“Likewise after supper He took the cup: and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this; for THIS IS MY BODY the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins: Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me.

“Here the people shall answer, Amen.

“Then shall the priest say:—

“Wherefore, having in remembrance His passion, death, and resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and second coming with great power to judge the quick and the dead, and to render to every man according to his works, we offer to Thee, our King and our God, according to His holy institution, this bread and this cup, giving thanks to Thee through Him that Thou hast vouchsafed us the honour to stand before Thee, and to sacrifice unto Thee. And we beseech Thee to look favourably on these Thy gifts, which are here set before Thee, O Thou self-sufficient God; and do Thou accept them for the honour of Thy Christ; and send down Thine Holy Spirit, the witness of the passion of our Lord Jesus, upon this sacrifice, that He may make this bread the body of Thy Christ, and this cup the blood of Thy Christ; that they who are partakers thereof may be confirmed in godliness, may obtain remission of their sins, may be delivered from the devil and his snares, may be replenished with the Holy Ghost, may be made worthy of Thy Christ, and may obtain everlasting life; Thou, O Lord Almighty, being reconciled unto them through the merits and mediation of Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever one God, world without end.”

A clear statement of Eucharistic doctrine, which is probably representative of the teaching of many of the Nonjurors, may be quoted from the Shorter Catechism contained in Thomas Deacon’s book A Full, True, and Comprehensive View of Christianity, which was published in 1747. Deacon was born in 1697 and died in 1753. He was consecrated a Nonjuring bishop in 1747. The doctrine taught in the following passages is that at the recital of the words of institution the bread and wine are made symbols and representatives of Christ’s body and blood; that, as such symbols, they are offered in sacrifice; and that at the invocation of the Holy Ghost they become the spiritual and life-giving body and blood of Christ in life and power and virtue and efficacy.

“The Eucharist is a sacrifice and a Sacrament. As a sacrifice, it is the offering the representative body and blood of Christ to God the Father; as a Sacrament, it is a feast upon that sacrifice. It was at the institution of the Eucharist that our Saviour began to offer Himself to His Father for the sins of all men. The sacrifice which He then offered was His natural body and blood, as separate from each other, because His body was considered as broken, and His blood as shed, for the sins of the world. But because it would have been unnatural for Him to have broken His own body and shed His own blood, and because He could not as a living High Priest offer Himself when He was dead, therefore, before He was so much as apprehended by His enemies, He offered to the Father His natural body and blood voluntarily and really though mystically under the symbols of bread and wine mixed with water; for which reason He called the bread at the Eucharist His body, which was then broken, given, or offered for the sins of many, and the cup His blood, which was then shed or offered for the sins of many. All the sacrifices of the old law were figures of this great one of Christ; and the Eucharist or sacrifice of thanksgiving, which we celebrate according to His institution, is a solemn commemorative oblation of it to God the Father, and procures us the virtue of it.”

“The consecration of the Eucharist is thus performed. The priest, after having placed the bread and mixed cup upon the altar, first gives God thanks for all His benefits and mercies conferred upon mankind, especially those of creation and redemption: he then recites how Jesus Christ instituted this Sacrament the night before His passion, and performs His command by doing what He did, he takes the bread into his hands and breaks it, which broken bread represents the dead body of Christ pierced upon the cross: he takes the cup into his hands, which cup, consisting of wine and water, represents the blood and water that flowed from the dead body of Christ upon the cross: he then repeats our Saviour’s powerful words over them, by which the bread and cup are made authoritative representations or symbols of Christ’s crucified body and offered blood: and being thus in a capacity to be offered to God, he accordingly makes the oblation, which is the highest and most proper act of Christian worship. After God has accepted of this sacrifice, He is pleased to return it to us again to feast upon, that we may thereby partake of all the benefits of our Saviour’s death and passion; in order to which the priest prays to God the Father to send His Holy Spirit upon the bread and cup offered to Him, that He may enliven those representations of Christ’s dead body and effused blood, and make them His spiritual life-giving body and blood in virtue and power, that the receivers thereof may obtain all the blessings of the institution. After which he continues his prayer and oblation in behalf of the whole world, particularly of the Church, bishops, clergy, king, and in general of all the faithful, whether living or dead. Thus we see that by the consecration of the Eucharist the bread and mixed wine are not destroyed, but sanctified; they are changed not in their substance but in their qualities; they are made not the natural but the sacramental body and blood of Christ; so that they are both bread and wine and the body and blood of Christ at the same time but not in the same manner. They are bread and wine by nature, the body and blood of Christ in mystery and signification; they are bread and wine to our senses, the body and blood of Christ to our understanding and faith; they are bread and wine in themselves, the body and blood of Christ in power and effect. So that whoever eats and drinks them as he ought to do, dwells in Christ and Christ in him, he is one with Christ and Christ with him.”

“The Eucharist as a Sacrament is a feast upon the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ.… This Sacrament is necessary for all baptised Christians, infants as well as others.… It is by the Eucharist alone that Christians are made one body with Christ, and reckoned to be His flesh, and are so united to Him as the body is to the head; it is the Eucharist alone that renders their bodies incorruptible, instilling a principle of life into them, by virtue of which they shall be raised to a blessed immortality.”

It is probable that the Eucharistic beliefs of Bishop Thomas Wilson, who was consecrated Bishop of Sodor and Man in 1698 and continued Bishop of that see until 1755, resembled those of some Nonjurors. Bishop Wilson lays great stress on the necessity of receiving the Holy Communion, and on the spiritual blessings of pardon and grace and salvation which may thereby be obtained; and on the Eucharist as a means of remembering Christ and His death and of receiving Christ as “food and sustenance,” and as a pledge and seal of His gifts. It is

“an ordinance appointed by Christ Himself, and for this reason, that Christians being often called upon to remember the love of their dying Saviour, and the occasion of His death, which was to make their peace with God, they might love Him with all their soul, and remember to observe the commands He has given them in order to fit them for heaven”;

“the only way to render our persons and our prayers acceptable to God; of obtaining the pardon of our sins, the grace of God, and everlasting life after death.”

Of it he says:—

“All Christians are bound at the peril of their souls to observe this ordinance of Christ. The blessings which attend the worthy receiving of this Sacrament are invaluable: no less than the pardon of all our past sins; the continuance of God’s Holy Spirit; the increase of His graces here, and eternal happiness hereafter. And, lastly, the neglect or abuse of this ordinance will be punished with judgments in this world, and in the world to come with misery unspeakable.”

The Eucharist is

“that very ordinance” “which Jesus Christ Himself appointed on purpose to keep up the remembrance of what He has done and suffered for us, that our own death, whenever it shall happen, may be a comfort to us, and when nothing in this world, nothing but a firm faith in Jesus Christ, can support or comfort our dying spirit”.

One of the prayers which he suggests is:—

“I adore Thine infinite mercy and goodness, Blessed God, for that Thou hast given Thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, not only to die for us, but to be our food and sustenance in this Holy Sacrament.”

Of the consecrated bread and wine he says:—

“These being pledges to assure us that, as certainly as bread and wine do nourish our bodies, so do these seal to us all the benefits which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us by His sacrifice and death.”

Further, Bishop Wilson regards the bread and wine as being made by the Holy Ghost at the consecration representatives of the body and blood of Christ, and His sacramental or spiritual body and blood; he expresses a wish for the restoration of the First Prayer Book of Edward VI.; he suggests the use of the invocation of the Holy Ghost after the Prayer of Consecration of the Book of Common Prayer; he describes the Eucharist as the “true Christian sacrifice”.

“Let a man, I say, be never so unlearned, yet he will easily understand that he is not to look upon and receive this bread and wine as common food, but as holy representatives of Christ’s body and blood, made such by an especial blessing of God.”

“ ‘Do this,’ that is, this that I do, offer bread and wine as a sacrifice to God (when consecrated). They could not offer His real body, but only His sacramental body, as a memorial of His real body.… When the bread and wine are by consecration made the sacramental body and blood of Christ, we have then a sacrifice to offer which is worthy to be received and to prevail with God.… The power of the Holy Spirit accompanies these elements, and makes them effectual means of grace and salvation.… Christ’s spiritual body, that is, made such by the Spirit of God. Not by the faith of the receiver, for they were such before.”

“The priest by doing what Christ did, by prayer and thanksgiving, by breaking the bread and pouring out the wine, obtaineth of God that these creatures by the descent of the Holy Ghost become after a spiritual manner the body and blood of Christ, by receiving of which our souls shall be strengthened and refreshed, as our bodies are by bread and wine.”

“Private devotions at the altar, taken out of the most ancient offices of the Church, to render our present Communion-service more agreeable to apostolic usage, and more acceptable (I hope) to God, and beneficial to all that partake thereof. Until it shall please Him to put it into the hearts and power of such as ought to do it to restore to us the First Service of Edward VI. or such as shall be more conformable to the appointment of Christ and His Apostles and their successors. Which may the Divine Majesty vouchsafe to grant for His sake who first ordained this Holy Sacrament.”

“Immediately after the Consecration. We offer unto Thee, our King and our God, this bread and this cup. We give Thee thanks for these and for all Thy mercies, beseeching Thee to send down Thy Holy Spirit upon this sacrifice, that He may make this bread the body of Thy Christ, and this cup the blood of Thy Christ; and that all we who are partakers thereof may thereby obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His passion.… May I atone Thee, O God, by offering to Thee the pure and unbloody sacrifice, which thou hast ordained by Jesus Christ.”

“Say secretly, [that is, after the Prayer of Consecration,] Send down Thy Spirit and blessing upon this means of grace and salvation, which Thou Thyself, O Jesus, hast ordained. Most merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look graciously upon the gifts now lying before Thee; and send down Thy Holy Spirit on this sacrifice, that He may make this bread and this wine the body and blood of Thy Christ, that all they who partake of them may be confirmed in godliness, may receive remission of their sins, may be delivered from the devil and his wiles, may be filled with the Holy Ghost, may be worthy of Thy Christ, and obtain everlasting life.”

“This is the true Christian sacrifice, without which there is no remission of sins; it was appointed by Jesus Christ Himself to be done in remembrance of His death until His coming again to judgment.”

“Give me such holy dispositions of soul whenever I approach Thine altar in some measure proportionable to the holiness of the work I am about,—of presenting the prayers of the faithful, of offering a spiritual sacrifice to God, in order to communicate the true bread of God to all His members.”

“He then, at that instant, [that is, at the institution of the Eucharist,] gave His body and blood a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He then offered as a priest Himself under the symbols of bread and wine, and this is the sacrifice which His priests do still offer. And let it be observed that Jesus Christ did this before He was apprehended, when He was at His own disposal; it was then that He offered Himself a sacrifice to God.”