Nor are we so embarrassed by their dilemma as to be obliged to confess, either that the Church was for some time extinct, or that we have now a controversy with the Church.  The Church of Christ has lived, and will continue to live, as long as Christ shall reign at the right hand of the Father, by whose hand she is sustained, by whose protection she is defended, by whose power she is preserved in safety.  For he will undoubtedly perform what he once promised, to be with his people “even to the end of the world."[37] We have no quarrel against the Church, for with one consent we unite with all the company of the faithful in worshipping and adoring the one God and Christ the Lord, as he has been adored by all the pious in all ages.  But our opponents deviate widely from the truth when they acknowledge no Church but what is visible to the corporeal eye, and endeavour to circumscribe it by those limits within which it is far from being included.  Our controversy turns on the two following points:—­first, they contend that the form of the Church is always apparent and visible; secondly, they place that form in the see of the Roman Church and her order of prelates.  We assert, on the contrary, first, that the Church may exist without any visible form; secondly, that its form is not contained in that external splendour which they foolishly admire, but is distinguished by a very different criterion, viz, the pure preaching of God’s word, and the legitimate administration of the sacraments.  They are not satisfied unless the Church can always be pointed out with the finger.  But how often among the Jewish people was it so disorganized, as to have no visible form left?  What splendid form do we suppose could be seen, when Elias deplored his being left alone?[38] How long, after the coming of Christ, did it remain without any external form?  How often, since that time, have wars, seditions, and heresies, oppressed and totally obscured it?  If they had lived at that period, would they have believed that any Church existed?  Yet Elias was informed that there were “left seven thousand” who had “not bowed the knee to Baal.”  Nor should we entertain any doubt of Christ’s having always reigned on earth ever since his ascension to heaven.  But if the pious at such periods had sought for any form evident to their senses, must not their hearts have been quite discouraged?  Indeed it was already considered by Hilary in his day as a grievous error, that people were absorbed in foolish admiration of the episcopal dignity, and did not perceive the dreadful mischiefs concealed under that disguise.  For this is his language:[39] “One thing I advise you—­beware of Antichrist, for you have an improper attachment to walls; your veneration for the Church of God is misplaced on houses and buildings; you wrongly introduce under them the name of peace.  Is there any doubt that they will be seats of Antichrist?  I think mountains, woods, and lakes, prisons and whirlpools,