same state as before. Recollect the history of the
Reformation in this land; begun by Henry VIII., established, it was
gladly assumed, by his son. But that youth dies, and then we have the
instant return of Popery, in all its triumph, fury, and revenge. After a
while Queen Mary departs, and all pious souls exult in liberation and
Protestantism. But then again, in Elizabeth's time, there comes a
half-papist, severe spiritual tyranny. Later down, after the overthrow
of the tyrant Charles, there arose for the first time, a prospect of
real religious liberty. But his son resumes the throne, and all such
liberty was abolished, and so continued long; and another revolution was
required that religious faith and worship might be free."[282]

But when the English Reformation did come it was worth all its cost. The
Church would not barter it to-day for the commercial value of
continents,--no, not if she were told that the refusal would cost her
whole centuries of poverty and sorrow, many more martyrdoms, and a
second home in the catacombs.

The various conflicts with infidelity have been scarcely less terrible
than the determined efforts made for the preservation of the faith of
the Gospel against the persecutions of the Roman Emperors and the popes
of the inquisitorial period. For there are two kinds of suffering in
defense of truth; that manifested by endurance of the body when physical
pain is inflicted, and that which the mind undergoes when plausible
error makes its fascinating appeal. And he who can resist the pretenses
of infidelity and remain pure amid the general waste of faith, has moral
power enough to attest his love of truth by dying in its behalf. God
takes note of all offerings which we bring, whether it be a lacerated
body in an age of persecution, or a sorely-tried but yet purely-kept
conscience in a period of devastating irreligion. The same benignant
Father who welcomed the sacrifice of the unblemished heifer was ready to
receive the humbler offering of a pair of turtle doves.

One of the general principles on which we based the present historical
inquiry, was the undesigned, but real service rendered the cause of
truth and the Church by skepticism. It is yet too soon to prove the
validity of this position in reference to the present manifestations of
Rationalism in England and the United States. They are yet incomplete,
and not until a system of doubt has completed its cycle, are we enabled
to determine the