THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS 527

use of Scriptural authority, while they refuse to employ Scriptural language. This, however, it is not my purpose to do at present. I desire only to address those who are willing to accept the Apostolic sense of the word Church; and with them, I would endeavour 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* 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.

6. 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.

* Any reference, except to Scripture, in notes of this kind would, of course, be useless: the argument from, or with, the Fathers, is not to be compressed into fifty pages. I have something to say about Hooker; but I reserve that for another time, not wishing to say it hastily, or to leave it without support.¹

¹ [Ruskin had made many notes on Hooker (see Introduction, p. lxxiii.), but he did not publish anything further on the subject.]

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