The light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is just and good, and who does good to all. Therefore he is to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart and all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God has been instituted by himself, and therefore our method of worship is limited by his own revealed will. He may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men or the suggestions of Satan. He may not be worshipped by way of visible representations, or by any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.
Worship is to be given to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to him alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creatures. And since the fall, worship is not to be given without a mediator or by any other mediation than that of Christ.
Prayer, with thanksgiving, is one part of natural worship, and this God requires of all men. But to be accepted it must be made in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, and according to his will. It must be made with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance; and corporate prayer must be made in a known language.
Prayer is to be made for lawful things, and for all kinds of people who are alive now or who shall live in the future, but not for the dead, nor for those who are known to have sinned the sin leading to death.
The reading of the Scriptures, preaching and hearing the word of God, the teaching and admonishing of one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord; as well as the administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are all parts of religious worship of God, to be performed in obedience to him, with understanding, faith, reverence and godly fear; solemn humiliation with fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions ought to be used in a holy and religious manner as well.
Neither prayer, nor any other part of religious worship, is now, under the gospel, either tied to, or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed: but God is to be worshiped everywhere, in spirit and 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, calls thereto.
RBC does not subscribe to Chapter Twenty-two, paragraphs 7 & 8; rather, we choose to stand in the tradition of the Second Helvetic Confession (1561) and questions 166-184 from Calvin’s Geneva Catechism of 1541. The following has been taken from the Second Helvetic Confession and is representative of Calvin’s teaching as well: “Although religion is not bound to time, yet it cannot be cultivated and exercised without a proper distribution and arrangement of time. Every Church, therefore, chooses for itself a certain time for public prayers, and for the preaching of the Gospel, and for the celebration of the sacraments; and no one is permitted to overthrow this appointment of the Church at his own pleasure. For unless some due time and leisure is given for the outward exercise of religion, without doubt men would be drawn away from it by their own affairs. Hence we see that in the ancient churches there were not only certain set hours in the week appointed for meetings, but that also the Lord's Day itself, ever since the apostles' time, was set aside for them and for a holy rest, a practice now rightly preserved by our Churches for the sake of worship and love. In this connection we do not yield to the Jewish observance and to superstitions. For we do not believe that one day is any holier than another, or think that rest in itself is acceptable to God. Moreover, we celebrate the Lord's Day and not the Sabbath as a free observance. Chapter Twenty-two, paragraphs 7 & 8 read: 7) As it is 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 has particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy to him: 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, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath. 8) This Sabbath is then kept holy to 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, 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.