The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

4. Placing the instance in himself, he declares emphatically (so as there is scarce a greater [Greek or Hebrew], or vehemency of Speech, in all his Writings,) which of those it was that he adhered unto, and placed his confidence in. And in the handling of this Subject, there were some things which engaged his holy mind into an earnestness of expression in the exaltation of one of these, namely of the Righteousness which is of God by Faith, and the depression of the other, or his own Righteousness. As,

4. Placing the instance in himself, he declares emphatically (so as there is scarce a greater 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, or vehemency of Speech, in all his Writings,) which of those it was that he adhered unto, and placed his confidence in. And in the handling of this Subject, there were some things which engaged his holy mind into an earnestness of expression in the exaltation of one of these, namely of the Righteousness which is of God by Faith, and the depression of the other, or his own Righteousness. As,

1. This was the turning point, whereon he and others had forsaken their Judaism and betaken themselves unto the Gospel. This therefore was to be secured as the main instance, wherein the greatest controversy that ever was in the world was debated. So he expresseth it, Gal. 2.15.16. We who are Jews by nature and not Sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the Works of the Law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ, and not by the Works of the Law. (2.) Hereon there was great opposition made unto this Doctrine by the Jews in all places and in many of them the minds of multitudes were turned off from the Truth (which the most are generally prone unto in this case) and perverted from the simplicity of the Gospel. This greatly affected his holy Soul, and he takes notice of it in most of his Epistles. (3.) The weight of the Doctrine it self, with that unwillingness