2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day

Jim Butler

The regulative principle of worship — the claim that God alone determines the acceptable manner of approaching Him — is the organising doctrine of 2nd London Confession of Faith Chapter 22. This session works through all eight paragraphs, distinguishing between the divinely commanded elements of worship (prayer, Scripture reading, preaching, singing, the sacraments) and the circumstantial matters left to Christian prudence, while also setting out the confession's Sabbatarian position: a creation-grounded, morally perpetual fourth commandment whose appointed day shifts from the seventh to the first day of the week at Christ's resurrection. Hearers are pressed to submit their worship preferences to divine prescription rather than personal taste, and to pursue Sabbath observance in its full rigour while resting in Christ's atonement when they fall short.