The expression 'standing before the Table,' is to be rightly understood by observing that the emphatic word in it is 'standing.' The intention of the framers of this direction was to put an end to the previous posture of kneeling directed in the preceding rubric, and to direct the priest to stand during the consecration. The word 'before' evidently implies a position in front of the Table, and excludes the end, whichever way the Table might be placed.
The ordering the Bread and Wine for the manual acts of consecration, might include the pouring of some of the wine from the flagon into the chalice (if not previously done); also the separation of a part of the bread from the remainder which the Priest does not now intend to consecrate, and pre-eminently the arranging conveniently the individual piece to be broken during the consecration.
The expression 'before the people' in this rubric, means simply in the presence of the people.
It was proposed by Baxter, at the Savoy Conference, to direct the Bread to be broken in the sight of the people. The framers of the rubric seem to have rejected the latter part of this proposal, and to have thought it sufficient to direct it to be done in the presence of the people, irrespective of their being able actually to see it. Any breaking the Bread at this period of the service was then a novelty, and is now peculiar to the English Liturgy. The object of the Puritans probably was to bring the ceremonial acts of the Priest in the Consecration into closer harmony with the order of our Lord's own acts and words in the Institution itself, as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, and this part of their proposal was conceded by the bishops and the revisers, as not inconsistent with the ancient usage of touching the Bread at this period of the service as if breaking it.
The acts of reverence of the Priest, during and after consecration, according to the old English use (as may be plainly seen in the rubrics of the Sarum Missal) consisted not in bending the knee, but in bowing the head and body.
The custom of elevating the consecrated Elements was probably connected with the Jewish heave-offering, and its idea of heavenward oblation. It was directed by the most ancient Liturgies, but was expressly prohibited in the Prayer-Book of 1549. This prohibition, however, was withdrawn in 1552. The elevation cannot therefore be unlawful, though certainly it is not obligatory. The ancient rubric of Sarum gives, as a first alternative respecting the height of elevation of the chalice, that it should be raised to the height of the breast. And this, therefore, would be a sufficient compliance with ancient custom.
There seems to be no reason for pronouncing the words of Institution in a different voice from the rest of the Prayer. See note e, p. 28.
119. * Here the Priest is to take the Paten into his hands:
120. + And here to break the Bread:
121. ++ And here to lay his hand upon all the Bread.