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(1) What is this Church which Christ loved?

(2) When and where was it established?

(3) What was it established for?

First: _What is the Church?_ The Church is a visible Society under a
visible Head, in Heaven, in Paradise, and on Earth. Who is this
visible Head? Jesus Christ--visible to the greatest number of its
members (i.e. in Heaven and in Paradise), and vicariously represented
here by "the Vicar of Christ upon Earth," the Universal Episcopate.

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Next: _When and where was it established?_ It was established in
Palestine, in the Upper Chamber, on the first Whitsunday, "the Day of
Pentecost".

Then: _What was it established for?_ It was established to be the
channel of salvation and sanctification for fallen man. God may, and
does, use other channels, but, "according to the Scriptures," the
Church is the authorized channel.

As such, let us think of the Church on earth under six Prayer-Book
names:--

(I) The Catholic Church.
(II) The National Church.
(III) The Established Church.
(IV) The Church of England.
(V) The Reformed Church.
(VI) The Primitive Church.

(I) THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The Creeds call it "the _Catholic_ Church" and describe its doctrine as
"the _Catholic_ Religion," or the "_Catholic_ Faith". The Te Deum,
Litany, and Ember Collect explain this word "Catholic" to mean "the
holy Church _throughout all the {3} world_," "_an universal_ Church,"
"_thy holy_ Church universal"; and the Collect for the King in the
Liturgy defines it as "the _whole_ Church". The "Catholic Church,"
then, is "the whole Church," East and West, Latin, Greek, and English,
"throughout all the world ".[2] Its message is world-wide, according
to the terms of its original Commission, "Go ye into _all the world_".

Thus, wherever there are souls and bodies to be saved and sanctified,
there, sooner or later, will be the Catholic Church. And, as a matter
of history, this is just what we find. Are there souls to be saved and
sanctified in Italy?--there is the Church, with its local headquarters
at Rome. Are there souls to be saved and sanctified in Russia?--there
is the Church, once with its local {4} headquarters at Moscow. Are
there souls to be saved and sanctified in England?--there is the
Church, with its local headquarters at Canterbury. It is, and ever has
been, one and the same Church, "all one man's sons," and that man, the
Man Christ Jesus. The Catholic Church is like the o