To these critics must be added the well-known commentator Dr. Hammond, who, instead of following the Fathers and the Reformers in their schemes of mystical interpretation, struck out a path for himself, and sought to illustrate the grammatical sense of the sacred writings. He studied the Hellenistic dialect, compared Greek MSS., examined ancient manners and customs, and employed the opinions of the Gnostics to elucidate references in the Epistles to early heresies. This is very remarkable in an Anglican Divine, and it indicates what some who sympathized with him in other respects might have regarded as a rationalistic tendency--certainly they would have so regarded it in any one not belonging to themselves. Hammond’s _Paraphrase and Annotations_, published in 1659, may be taken as constituting an epoch in the history of exegesis; the more so on account of his influence, for his name stood so high with the Episcopalian clergy, “that he naturally turned the tide of interpretation his own way.”[455] CHAPTER XV. Four eminent Divines, who have made a deep mark on English literature, now claim attention, coming, as they do, from their complexion of thought, and from their characteristic opinions, between the Anglicans just reviewed, and the Latitudinarians who remain to be noticed. William Chillingworth was one of those clever, hard-headed men in whom the reasoning faculty predominates over imagination and sentiment, and who are thoroughly at home in the exercises of logic, subjecting the opinions of opponents to a subtle analysis, and entrenching themselves behind carefully-constructed outworks of argumentative defence. The skill which, as an engineer, he displayed at the siege of Gloucester, in framing engines to storm the place, was of a piece with the skill which he exhibited in attacking what he believed to be forms of error and superstition.[456] He is best known by his great work, _The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation_; and it is evident that he had derived advantages, as an assailant of the Roman Church, from the acquaintance with it which he had formed during the period of his connection with that community. [Sidenote: LIBERAL ORTHODOX.--CHILLINGWORTH.]