It has been said that Christians with a small exception have never questioned the propriety of defensive war. As it regards nominal Christians, this statement is perhaps correct, but as it respects the real disciples of the Mediator, it is to be questioned. We hear of no Christians in the first ages of the church engaged in carnal warfare until we hear of great corruptions in the church. Most Protestants have been of opinion that those precious disciples who inhabited the dark valleys of Piedmont during the great corruptions of the nominal church were the Redeemer's true subjects. These disciples, of whom the world was not worthy, utterly refused to engage even in defensive war, notwithstanding they were hunted down by their bloody persecutors.[10] It has been often said that the Reformers, who were good men, did not hesitate to engage in defensive war, and that the Reformation was finally supported by the sword. That the Reformers were generally pious men is readily admitted, and that the Reformation, under divine providence, was a glorious event to the church is also granted. But the history of the Reformers, when written by their friends, abundantly manifests that they were men, subject to like passions with other men, and that all the means they employed could not be justified, either by the spirit or the precepts of the gospel. Henry the Eighth was a vile man, but he was very active in protesting against the Pope because his holiness would not grant him a divorce. God makes the wrath of man praise him. It will not probably be a great length of time (in the opinion of the writer) before those churches which were defended with the sword will be destroyed by the sword.