sense of the word Church; and with them, I would endeavor
shortly to ascertain what consequences must follow from an acceptance of
that Apostolic sense, and what must be our first and most necessary
conclusions from the common language of Scripture[142] respecting these
following points:--

(1) The distinctive characters of the Church,
(2) The Authority of the Church.
(3) The Authority of the Clergy over the Church.
(4) The Connection of the Church with the State.

187. These are four separate subjects of question; but we shall not have
to put these questions in succession with each of the four Scriptural
meanings of the word Church, for evidently its second and third meaning
may be considered together, as merely expressing the general or
particular conditions of the Visible Church, and the fourth
signification is entirely independent of all questions of a religious
kind. So that we shall only put the above inquiries successively
respecting the Invisible and Visible Church; and as the two last--of
authority of Clergy, and connection with State--can evidently only have
reference to the Visible Church, we shall have, in all, these six
questions to consider:--

(1) The distinctive characters of the Invisible Church.
(2) The distinctive characters of the Visible Church.
(3) The Authority of the Invisible Church.
(4) The Authority of the Visible Church,
(5) The Authority of Clergy over the Visible Church.
(6) The Connection of the Visible Church with the State.

188. (1) What are the distinctive characters of the Invisible Church?
That is to say, What is it which makes a person a member of this Church,
and how is he to be known for such? Wide question--if we had to take
cognizance of all that has been written respecting it, remarkable as it
has been always for quantity rather than carefulness, and full of
confusion between Visible and Invisible: even the Article of the Church
of England being ambiguous in its first clause: "The _Visible_ Church is
a congregation of Faithful men." As if ever it had been possible, except
for God, to see Faith, or to know a Faithful man by sight! And there is
little else written on this question, without some such quick confusion
of the Visible and Invisible Church;--needless and unaccountable
confusion. For evidently, the Church which is composed of Faithful men
is the one true, indivisible, and indiscernible Church, built on the
foundation of Apostles and Prophets, J