of unity. The position of Congregationalists is that "each society of believers is properly a Christian Church, and that the New Testament authorises every Christian Church to elect its own officers, to manage all its own affairs and to stand independent of and irresponsible to all authority saving only that of the Supreme and Divine Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ". Even the possibility of an organised confederacy is strictly limited, for they go on to say: "We believe that it is the duty of Christian Churches to hold communion with each other, to entertain an enlarged affection for each other as members of the same body, and to co-operate for the promotion of the Christian cause; but that no Church, or union of Churches, has any right or power to interfere with the faith or discipline of any other Church ".
What the Congregationalists deny is the conception of the Church as a visible body. Luther asserted that the Holy Catholic Church, consisting of those who were justified by faith, was not the same thing as the Church of Rome. But in his eyes the invisible Church stood to the visible as the soul to the body, the primitive principle which was always striving to find a fit expression. Calvin, in like manner, contended that his system was universally true and was the only expression of the form of the invisible Church set forth in Scripture. The Congregationalists recognised the futility of such claims at the bar of history, and threw away the idea of a visible Church altogether. Believers might meet and worship as they pleased: through faith they had direct communion with their Lord: what more was needed? Their position was
