No - the test runs the other way. If it is not prescribed, it does not belong. Human imagination and invention, the suggestions of Satan, and any visible representation of God are all excluded on that ground.

This is what people mean by the regulative principle, and it works by exclusion rather than by permission: the question about a practice is not whether it is forbidden but whether it was asked for. The light of nature is granted to be enough to show there is a God who ought to be worshipped. What nature cannot supply is how.

'Don't make any idols or images of anything in the sky, on the earth, or in the water.'

'Don't bow down to them or serve them. I, the Lord your God, am passionate and won't share your loyalty. If people hate me, their children will feel the consequences for generations.'

'But if you love me and keep my commands, I'll show kindness to thousands of generations.'

Exodus 20:4-6

Confession 22.1

God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and no one else - not angels, not saints, not any other creature.

And since the fall, not without a mediator, and no mediator but Christ. This is the doctrine of Christ as sole mediator applied to the practical question of who a person may address when they pray.

Jesus told him, 'Get out of here, Satan! It's written: Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'

Matthew 4:10

Confession 22.2

Not since the fall. Worship is not to be offered without a mediator, and in the mediation of no one but Christ.

That is the second half of the paragraph ruling out worship of angels and saints, and it rules out something further at the same time: approaching God through any other intermediary at all, whether a saint asked to pass a request on or a priest standing in. There is one mediator, and he is one of the three being worshipped.

There's only one God, and there's only one go-between who can bring God and people together - the human being, Jesus the Messiah.

1 Timothy 2:5

Confession 22.2

That it is made in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, and according to God's will - with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love and perseverance, and in a language people know when it is prayed with others.

Prayer is called a special part of natural worship and is required of everyone, so this is not about who is allowed to pray. It is about the difference between praying and being heard, and every condition in the list is either about who the prayer goes through or about the person praying meaning it.

And whatever you ask in my name, I'll do it, so the Father will be honored through the Son.

If you ask me for anything in my name, I'll do it.

John 14:13-14

Confession 22.3

Anything unlawful, the dead, and those known to have sinned the sin that leads to death. Otherwise it is to be made for lawful things and for all sorts of people living, and for those who will live later.

Two of those exclusions are aimed at a practice the reformers had rejected. Praying for the dead assumes their situation is still open, and the confession holds that it is not. The positive half is deliberately wide: all sorts of men, including people not yet born.

First of all, I'm urging you to pray for everyone - ask God to help them, speak up for them, and thank God for them.

Pray for kings and everyone in authority, so we can live peaceful, quiet lives, marked by respect for God and integrity.

1 Timothy 2:1-2

Confession 22.4

Reading Scripture, preaching and hearing the word, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, prayer, and baptism and the Lord's supper.

It is a short list and that is the point of it. Under the rule that worship must be prescribed, the list is the whole of it, and the burden of proof lies on anything proposed for addition.

Let the message about Christ fill your lives. Teach and encourage each other with wisdom. Sing to God with thankful hearts - psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Colossians 3:16

Confession 22.5

No. Under the gospel worship is not tied to any place or directed towards one. God is to be worshipped everywhere, in spirit and in truth.

The temple had been a real address for fourteen centuries. The confession is saying that arrangement is over, and that nothing has replaced it - not a building, not a city, not a direction to face.

Jesus replied, 'Believe me, the time is coming when worshiping the Father won't be about this mountain or Jerusalem.

John 4:21

Confession 22.6

Yes. Worship in families daily and in private by each person is required - and the public assemblies are not to be carelessly or wilfully neglected or forsaken when God calls people to them by his word or his providence.

Worship is freed from buildings, and that freedom is refused as a reason to make gathering optional. Carelessly and wilfully are doing the work: the clause is aimed at people who could be there, and the qualification about providence covers those who cannot.

And let's not stop meeting together, like some people do. Instead, let's encourage each other, especially now as you see the day approaching.

Hebrews 10:25

Confession 22.6

That God has appointed one day in seven to be kept holy, permanently, for everyone - the last day of the week until the resurrection, and the first day of the week from then on.

The first day is called the Lord's day and the Christian Sabbath, and observance of the seventh day is said to be abolished. This is the fourth commandment treated as moral and permanent rather than ceremonial, which is why it survives when the festivals do not.

'Remember to set aside the Sabbath day and keep it special.'

Exodus 20:8

Confession 22.7

By preparing beforehand and settling ordinary business in advance, then resting all day from work and recreations, and spending the time in public and private worship and in duties of necessity and mercy.

The last clause is the one that keeps the paragraph from being merely restrictive. Necessity and mercy are exempt, which is the same distinction Jesus makes when he is challenged about healing on the Sabbath.

If you stop trampling on the Sabbath and doing whatever you want on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly,

Isaiah 58:13

Confession 22.8