§. III.
II.The Definition of the Church of God, as gathered into a visible Fellowship. Secondly, The Church is to be considered as it signifies a certain Number of Persons gathered by God’s Spirit, and by the Testimony of some of his Servants raised up for that End, unto the Belief of the true Principles and Doctrines of the Christian Faith, who through their Hearts being united by the same Love, and their Understandings informed in the same Truths, gather, meet, and assemble together to wait upon God, to worship him, and to bear a joint Testimony for the Truth against Error, suffering for the same, and so becoming through this Fellowship as one Family and Houshold in certain Respects, do each of them watch over, teach, instruct, and care for one another, according to their several Measures and Attainments: Such were the Churches of the primitive Times gathered by the Apostles; whereof we have divers mentioned in the holy Scriptures. And as to the Visibility of the Church in this Respect, there hath been a great Interruption since the Apostles Days, by Reason of the Apostasy, as will hereafter appear.