To me the question appears to be so settled as to leave no room for doubt. After the sermon, the Priest is ordered to return to the Lord's Table to commence the Offertory: consequently he is supposed to have read the previous portions of the Service there, before he entered the Pulpit. No distinction in this respect is made between Communion and Non-Communion days. In the Occasional Forms to which I have referred, for seasons when no Communion was intended, the Minister was specially directed to stand at the north side of the Table, at the commencement of the second service: from which it must be evident, that such was the custom on Sundays and other holy days. Speaking of the Rubric, which orders the Minister to stand at the north side of the Table, Archdeacon Sharp observes, "which is to be understood even of that part of it which by another Rubric is appointed to be said, when there is no Communion." He also meets the case of large Churches, in which, when the Table stands at the east end of the Chancel, it may not be possible for the Minister to be heard by the people, remarking: "but then, pray let us observe that where this necessity for breaking through the Rubric cannot be pleaded by us: that is, where this service may be conveniently enough performed at the Table itself situated in the Chancel; there will be no excuse for us for reading it in the desk. Where
and the Bishops urged the practice as primitive. The reply of the Presbyterians proves that both parties referred to non-communion days. "That all the Primitive Church used, when there was no Communion, to say service at the Communion-table, is a crude assertion, that must have better proof before we take it as convincing. To prove that they used it when there was a Communion, is no proof that they used it when there was none." History of Conformity, p. 237.
