In closing these very brief and imperfect accounts of these ancient witnesses for the truth, a few remarks may not be inappropriate, more especially as I have made a claim regarding their denominational character, that has never, to my knowledge, been advanced by our friends, and which will not be readily conceded by our opponents. If we take the Waldenses under the great variety of names which they bore at different periods and in different locations, it appears that they were by far the most important branch of dissenters from the Church of Rome, and that they were divided among themselves like the present dissenters in England. The more I have investigated this matter, the more evident it appears; and as it would be unwise for us to attempt to establish an affinity with all of them in the distinctive feature of our order, it is certain that our claims at least to a due proportion can never be disproved. That many of them observed the seventh day, and that some of them paid a superstitious veneration to the first day, is quite as certain as the fact that they were all persecuted by the Church of Rome. The farther we go back into antiquity, the more distinctly does their Sabbatarian character appear. Nothing but the blindness of bigotry can induce any man, or class of men, who have paid the smallest attention to the accounts of all the Catholic authors concerning them, to deny that complaints against them for disregarding the festivals of the church, in which they included the Dominical day, were widespread and long-continued; and that almost equally with the former were the accusations of their paying an undue regard to Saturday, or the Jewish Sabbath. On the other hand, it is clear, from the terms "some of them," and "a part," with similar expressions employed by the writers in question, that they did not accuse all of having fallen into this monstrous heresy. The keeping of the first day appears to be the last thing that is given up by those who withdraw from the old, corrupt establishments; and nothing affords a clearer evidence of the prejudices of education than the slow reluctance with which it is yielded, as they find that the proofs for its support from the Scriptures fail them, and the moral and immutable character of the ancient Sabbath comes up to their view in its practical operations. Such has been the case in all places where we have certain knowledge, and the probability is that it was so in the dark ages beyond our sight.