The Sixteenth century was distinguished by a large and valuable accession of Expositors of the Sacred Volume. Mosheim reckons up not fewer than fifty-five writers, who, in the course of that century, devoted their labors, to a greater or less extent, to the interpretation or illustration of the inspired writings -- a circumstance which at once indicated the progress of the principles of the Reformation, and contributed most materially to their diffusion. Nor were expository treatises, in illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures, simply increased in number; they were marked by a decided improvement in point of intrinsic value. It is to the honor of a large proportion of the Interpreters of that age, that, rejecting the practice so well exposed by Bishop Horsley, of "drawing I know not what mystical meanings, by a certain cabalistic alchemy, from the simplest expressions of holy writ," they made it their endeavor, in every case, to ascertain the true meaning of the Spirit of God, by a careful examination of the text and context.
