Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day

The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doeth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might.405 But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.406

Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to him alone:407 not to angels, saints, or any other creature:408 and since the Fall, not without a Mediator; nor in the mediation of any other but of Christ alone.409

Prayer with thanksgiving, being one special part of religious worship,410 is by God required of all men;411 and that it may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son,412 by the help of his Holy Spirit,413 according to his will,414 with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance;415 and, if vocal, in a known tongue.416

Prayer is to be made for things lawful,417 and for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter;418 but not for the dead,419 nor for those of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death.420

The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear; the sound preaching, and conscionable hearing of the Word, in obedience unto God with understanding, faith, and reverence; singing of psalms with grace in the heart; as, also, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ; are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God: besides religious oaths, and vows, solemn fastings, and thanksgivings upon special occasion; which are, in their several times and seasons, to be used in an holy and religious manner.

Neither prayer, nor any other part of religious worship, is now, under the gospel, either tied unto, or made more acceptable to, any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed: but God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth; as in private families daily, and in secret each one by himself, so more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God, by his Word or providence, calleth thereunto.

As it is of the law of nature that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him:439 which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week,440 which in Scripture is called the Lord's Day,441 and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath.442

This Sabbath is to be kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations;443 but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.444