It will assist the reader in understanding what follows, to observe that, whilst all the theologians to be described appealed to Scripture, each class had its own standard and principles of interpretation; and that, whilst all professed to take the Bible as a whole, each selected from it some favourite parts. The Anglicans, professedly as well as actually, adopted the teaching of the first four or five centuries as a guide to the meaning of Holy Writ. They looked upon that period as the purest and ripest age of Christian wisdom, and concluded that the Church of after-days has been, and is, bound to adhere to the faith and order then established. The Puritans had no such idea of patristic teaching, but contended for the full right of private judgment. Some of the Fathers they valued and loved, particularly Augustine; yet without attaching any special authority even to him. They professed to come to the sacred oracles with unbiassed minds, and it is one of their characteristic notions that the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon devout seekers, remains alone the unerring Expositor of His own Word. The Latitudinarians had their favourite authors, particularly of the Greek philosophical school; and although they did not adopt the opinions of the Puritans as to the teaching of the Spirit, any more than did the Anglicans, yet, in common with both of them, they were prepared to seek Divine assistance in the study of the sacred volume. What, however, they mainly relied upon was their own reason. The Quakers, in their turn, extolled the inward light, the illumination of Christ’s Spirit, as explaining and supplementing the written Word. The Fathers, the Holy Spirit, human reason, and the inward light, were the interpreters to which different classes of Scripture students looked for help in their momentous investigations. In connection with this difference another presents itself. The Anglicans insisted upon those parts of Scripture which relate to the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement, and to the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They used the priesthood and rites of Judaism for the support of their own views regarding sacerdotal ministrations. Diocesan episcopacy and Apostolical succession they endeavoured to deduce from the New Testament; but they were obliged to rest principally upon patristic records for what they believed and taught upon these subjects. [Sidenote: THEOLOGY.]