of Christians, but
limiting, in a manner understood by all of them, the sense in which the
_word_ should thenceforward be used. There is grievous inconvenience in
the present state of things. For instance, in a sermon lately published
at Oxford, by an anti-Tractarian divine, I find this sentence,--"It is
clearly within the province of the State to establish a national
_church_, or _external institution of certain forms of worship_." Now
suppose one were to take this interpretation of the word "Church," given
by an Oxford divine, and substitute it for the simple word in some Bible
texts, as, for instance, "Unto the angel of the external institution of
certain forms of worship of Ephesus, write," etc. Or, "Salute the
brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the external
institution of certain forms of worship which is in his house,"--what
awkward results we should have, here and there! Now I do not say it is
possible for men to agree with each other in their religious _opinions_,
but it is certainly possible for them to agree with each other upon
their religious _expressions_; and when a word occurs in the Bible a
hundred and fourteen times, it is surely not asking too much of
contending divines to let it stand in the sense in which it there
occurs; and when they want an expression of something for which it does
_not_ stand in the Bible, to use some other word. There is no compromise
of religious opinion in this; it is simply proper respect for the
Queen's English.

184. The word occurs in the New Testament, as I said, a hundred and
fourteen times.[140] In every one of those occurrences, it bears one
and the same grand sense: that of a congregation or assembly of men. But
it bears this sense under four different modifications, giving four
separate meanings to the word. These are--

I. The entire Multitude of the Elect; otherwise called the Body of
Christ; and sometimes the Bride, the Lamb's Wife; including the Faithful
in all ages;--Adam, and the children of Adam yet unborn.

In this sense it is used in Ephesians v. 25, 27, 32; Colossians i. 18;
and several other passages.

II. The entire multitude of professing believers in Christ, existing on
earth at a given moment; including false brethren, wolves in sheep's
clothing, goats and tares, as well as sheep and wheat, and other forms
of bad fish with good in the net.

In this sense it is used in 1 Cor. x. 32, xv. 9; Galatians i. 13; 1 Tim.
iii. 5, etc.

III.