It is not for us to claim the whole body of dissenters of the better class; but we may claim, and I believe that candid men of all parties will concede, upon a thorough examination of the ancient Catholic authors, that Sabbatarian sentiments have prevailed much more extensively among these ancient sects than has generally been supposed. Neither my time nor my limits would allow a full investigation of this very interesting subject. The most that I could hope to do was to make a beginning. The field for research is very wide, and upon the Sabbatarian question it is wholly unoccupied. And here I would remark, for the information of those who may feel disposed to examine the subject hereafter, that it is only by an immediate reference to the old Catholic writers that we can ever hope to obtain much information upon this point. These speak with great plainness, and without paraphrase, omission, or concealment, of the rejecters of the church-festivals, and the observers of the Jewish Sabbath. They were open and undisguised, and were far from exhibiting the cautiousness of the moderns upon this subject. They had no concern about the proofs for the observance of the first day, and no fear of publishing to the world how many of the incorrigible heretics refused to venerate it. It made no difference to them if it was not found in the Bible, since it was in the decrees of the councils and the bulls of the popes, which, with them, were of equal authority with the Scripture command. For a long time their complaints ran high on this head against many of the seceding parties; and it is well for us that this testimony is placed beyond the reach of modern writers, where it cannot be garbled, mutilated, and suppressed. It is not to be expected that our first-day brethren, even those of the Baptist persuasion, would take any pains to prove that these apostolic communities were Sabbatarian, though possessing the knowledge that such was the fact. It has been their policy to represent us as insignificant in number and recent in origin. Unfortunately, we have contributed to extend that delusion. For my own part, I am of the opinion that in the dark ages there were many more of our denomination than there are at present. Not that any in these ages were called Seventh-day Baptists; no such thing: but that multitudes, like ourselves, refused to observe the festivals of the church, contended that the Decalogue was moral and immutable, and refused baptism to any but professing believers. Like ourselves, they took the Scriptures for their guide and rule of faith in everything, and were most decided in rejecting everything for which they found no warrant in that holy book, despising all human appointments, all priestly traditions, and man-made institutions. For many ages the valleys formed an asylum, to which all seceding parties from the Romish hierarchy fled for protection. It is not strange—indeed, we might expect—that this