It is not surprising that a pampered priesthood and lordly prelates, whose honours and preferments were based upon a system of ecclesiastical tyranny, should oppose, by every possible means, the establishment of unlimited toleration; although we may well wonder that those who had felt themselves the heavy weight of religious persecution, should commit so great an error, so palpable an inconsistency, as to attempt to deprive others of the inestimable blessing of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences. Roger Williams, who fled from the persecuting Puritans, became the founder of the first Baptist Church in America, which was instituted at Providence, 1644, and from which originated a church at Newport, in 1652, under the auspices of Rev. William Vaughan. From this community seven persons seceded in 1671, and established the first Seventh-day Baptist, and the Third Baptist Church upon the American continent. This secession took place in consequence of the teachings of Stephen Mumford, who emigrated from England in 1665, and who contended, with zeal and fervour, for the perpetuity and unchangeable nature of the Sabbatical ordinance. It is greatly to be lamented that of the early life of this man, the parent, under God, of so many flourishing religious communities, so little is known. Only a few facts have been preserved, and these rest on questionable evidence. I have not been able to obtain any knowledge of his parents, of the place of his birth and education, or any of the circumstances connected with his conversion. It is certain, however, that he embraced Sabbatarian sentiments, or was educated in that belief in Europe. Mr. Mumford, when he arrived in this country, was in the middle of life; a period when the energy of youth remains without its rashness, and the mind is prepared to act with steadiness without exhibiting the timidity and pertinacity of old age.