20. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. JAMES II, 2. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; 3. And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool. BOOK V. INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH. By the term _Church_ we understand the whole body of God's true people in every period of time. This is the invisible or spiritual Church. It is also understood of the collective body of Christians, or all those over the face of the earth who believe in Christ, and acknowledge him to be the Savior of mankind. This is called the visible Church. The people of God on earth are called the Church militant, and those in heaven the Church triumphant. Dr. John Owen remarks that, sin having entered into the world, God was pleased to found his Church in the promise of the Messiah given to Adam; that this promise contained in it something of the nature of a covenant, including the grace which God designed to show to sinners in the Messiah, and the obedience which he required from them, and that consequently, from its first promulgation, that promise became the sole foundation of the Church, and of the whole worship of God therein. Prior to the days of Abraham this Church, though scattered up and down in the world, and subject to many changes in its worship through the addition of new revelations, was still but one and the same, because founded in the same covenant, and interested thereby in all the benefits and privileges that God had granted or would at any time grant. In process of time God was pleased to restrict this Church, so far as visible acknowledgment went, in a great measure to the seed of Abraham. With the latter he renewed his covenant, requiring that he should walk before him and be upright. He also constituted him the father of the faithful, or of all who believe, and "the heir of the world." So that since the days of Abraham the Church has, in every age, been founded upon the covenant made with the patriarch, and on the work of redemption which was to be performed according to that covenant. Now, wheresoever this covenant made with Abraham is, and with whomsoever it is established, with them is the Church of God, and to them all the promises and privileges of the Church really belong. Hence we may learn that at the coming of the Messiah there was not one Church taken away and another set up in its room, but the Church continued the same in those that were the children of Abraham, according to the faith. It is common with divines to speak of the Jewish and Christian Churches as though they were two distinct and totally different things; but that is not a correct view of the matter. The Christian Church is not another Church, but the very same