Neither had we departed therefrom, but of very
necessity, and much against our wills. But I put case, an idol be set up
in the Church of God, and the same desolation, which Christ prophesied to
come, stood openly in the holy place. What if some thief or pirate
invade and possess "Noah's ark?" These folks, as often as they tell us
of the Church, mean thereby themselves alone, and attribute all these
titles to their own selves, boasting, as they did in times past which
cried, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord;" or as the
Pharisees and Scribes did, which craked they were "Abraham's children."
Thus with a gay and jolly show deceive they the simple, and seek to choke
us with the very name of the Church. Much like as if a thief, when he
had gotten into another man's house, and by violence either hath thrust
out or slain the owner, should afterward assign the same house to
himself, casting forth of possession the right inheritor; or if
Anti-Christ, when he had once entered into "the temple of God," should
afterward say, "This house is mine own, and Christ hath nothing to do
withal.
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