The term Sabbath, during all this period, was applied exclusively to the seventh day. Indeed, whenever, for fourteen or fifteen centuries, that name occurs, it must be understood as applying to the last day of the week. Up to the present time, on the records of England, particularly on the Journals of the House of Lords, the highest court of England, all things entered as done on the seventh day are entered as done die Sabbati, upon the Sabbath day. From the time of Constantine to the Reformation, Sunday was never regarded as the Sabbath, nor called by that sacred name. During all this time, in England, here and there, were found individuals who observed the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week—strictly, though exposed to many privations and frequent persecutions. Of their numbers or their locations we have at present but very imperfect accounts. The mass of men regarded the Sabbath as abolished;—Sunday as no Sabbath, but merely a church-holiday, to which they paid no conscientious regard. With the dawn of the Reformation a new spirit of inquiry was awakened in regard to the duties of practical godliness. Among the subjects for discussion we find the Sabbath early introduced and thoroughly examined. There was one class of reformers who, dwelling alone on the sufficiency of faith and the freeness of the Gospel, trembled at the thought of imposing rules upon men, and expressed a sort of holy horror at the term, "law." Of this description were Luther and Calvin. It is well known that the former recommended to Christians "to ride, dance, and feast," on Sunday, rather than to submit to any infringement of the liberty of conscience. But there were others, who contended that an institution given in Paradise, and enforced by one of the commandments of the Decalogue, could not have been abolished; yet, finding themselves in the dilemma of observing another day than that originally appointed, they maintained that the day had been changed so early as to justify us in allowing it. A third class contended that an institution so early given, and so often enforced, could not have been abolished or changed without explicit authority; that this explicit authority had never been given; and, therefore, the seventh day of the week, and that only, should be observed. Compared with the whole, the number who acknowledged the perpetuity and morality of the Sabbath, and manifested a sacred regard for either the first or the seventh day, was small. However, they were sufficient to prove that wherever the subject of the Sabbath has been considered, there has always been found those who, by precept and example, have witnessed for the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.