John Newman wrote:
Trust the Church of God implicitly, even when your natural judgment would take a different course from hers, and would induce you to question her prudence on her correctness. Recollect what a hard task she has; how she is sure to be criticized and spoken against, whatever she does; recollect how long is the experience gained in eighteen hundred years, and what a right she has to claim your assent to principles which have had so extended and so triumphant a trial. Thank her that she has kept the faith safe for so many generations, and do your part in helping her to transmit it to generations after you. (from The Idea of a University - Part 2, Section 10: Christianity and Medical Science)
When I say, to my anglican friends, that I believe in The Church I don’t mean that I give intellectual assent to its existence (as, say, a label for “the set of all Christians, known to God) but rather that I trust her. I’m continually surprised at folks’ difficulty in understanding the difference in that perspective, given that the same distinction regarding one’s relationship with God is commonplace among evangelicals.