The visible church catholic possesses a duration commensurate with time. It is a perpetual society. It has existed, without intermission, from the period of its formation to the present hour, and shall continue to exist, without interruption, to the end of time. Different dispensations, indeed, there have been, but, under them all, the same church; nor was there ever an instant when its being was suspended. . . . The floods of error and persecution can never reach the church’s Head: and while the head is above water the body is safe.

William Symington, Messiah the Prince, 94-95.