The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

19. NOW we have ever thought, that the Primitive Church which was in the times of Christ and the Apostles and holy Fathers, was the Catholic Church. Nor do we doubt, but that that Church is the Ark of Noah, the Spouse of Christ, the Pillar and Foundation of Truth; or to place in it all the Hopes of our Salvation. It is indeed an odious thing to break off and depart from that Society a Man has long lived in, especially ⟨p. 66⟩if that Society consist of Men who seem to be, and are therefore called Christians, tho in truth they are none. And in reality, we do not so contemn their Church, as bad as it now is, (for the Name sake, and […] Gospel of Jesus Christ was once truly and purely taught there) as that we have willingly departed from it without necessity. But what if an Idol be set up in the Church of God, and that Desolation appears there, which Christ foretold should stand in the holy Place? What if some Pirate or Robber possesseth himself of the Ark of Noah? certainly, as often as these men thus preach to us of the Church, they make themselves only to be that Church, and ascribe all those glorious Titles to themselves, and triumph like those of Old,¹ who cried The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord; or like the Scribes and Pharisees, ²when they boasted they were the Children of Abraham.

19. NOW we have ever thought, that the Primitive Church which was in the times of Christ and the Apostles and holy Fathers, was the Catholick Church. Nor do we doubt, but that that Church is the Ark of Noah, the Spouse of Christ, the Pillar and Foundation of Truth; or to place in it all the Hopes of our Salvation. It is indeed an odious thing to break off and depart from that Society a Man has long lived in, especially ⟨p. 66⟩if that Society consist of Men who seem to be, and are therefore called Christians, tho in truth they are none. And in reality, we do not so contemn their Church, as bad as it now is, (for the Name sake, and 〈…〉 Gospel of Jesus Christ was once truly and purely taught there) as that we have willingly departed from it without necessity. But what if an Idol be set up in the Church of God, and that Desolation appears there, which Christ foretold should stand in the holy Place? What if some Pirate or Robber possesseth himself of the Ark of Noah? certainly, as often as these men thus preach to us of the Church, they make themselves only to be that Church, and ascribe all those glorious Titles to themselves, and triumph like those of Old,