_oblation_, but sometimes a _price_; yet by _price_ we are not to understand anything, by the value whereof, he could claim right to a pardon for us, from his offended Father; but that price which God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand. ------- CHAPTER XXXIX. OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF THE WORD CHURCH. [Sidenote: Church the Lord’s house.] The word Church, (_Ecclesia_) signifieth in the books of Holy Scripture divers things. Sometimes, though not often, it is taken for _God’s house_, that is to say, for a temple, wherein Christians assembled to perform holy duties, publicly, as (_1 Cor._ xiv. 34) _Let your women keep silence in the Churches_: but this is metaphorically put for the congregation there assembled; and hath been since used for the edifice itself, to distinguish between the temples of Christians and idolaters. The Temple of Jerusalem was _God’s house_, and the house of prayer; and so is any edifice dedicated by Christians to the worship of Christ, _Christ’s house_: and therefore the Greek fathers call it Κυριακὴ, _the Lord’s house_: and thence in our language it came to be called _kyrke_, and _church_. [Sidenote: _Ecclesia_, properly what.] Church, when not taken for a house, signifieth the same that _ecclesia_ signified in the Grecian commonwealth, that is to say, a congregation, or an assembly of citizens, called forth to hear the magistrate speak unto them; and which in the commonwealth of Rome was called _concio_: as he that spake was called _ecclesiastes_, and _concionator_. And when they were called forth by lawful authority, (_Acts_ xix. 39) it was _Ecclesia legitima_, a _lawful Church_, ἔννομος ἐκκλησία. But when they were excited by tumultuous and seditious clamour, then it was a Confused Church, ἐκκλησία συγκεχυμένη. It is taken also sometimes for the men that have right to be of the congregation, though not actually assembled, that is to say, for the whole multitude of Christian men, how far soever they be dispersed: as (_Acts_ viii. 3) where it is said, that _Saul made havoc of the Church_: and in this sense is Christ said to be the head of the Church. And sometimes for a certain part of Christians, as (_Col._ iv. 15) _Salute the Church that is in his house_. Sometimes also for the elect only; as (_Eph._ v. 27) _A glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, holy, and without blemish_; which is meant of the _Church triumphant_, or _Church to come_. Sometimes, for a congregation assembled of professors of Christianity, whether their profession be true or counterfeit; as it is understood, (_Matth._ xviii. 17) where it is said, _Tell it to the Church; and if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be to thee as a Gentile, or publican_. [Sidenote: In what sense the church is one person.] [Sidenote: Church defined.]