The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

It is fallen out herein not much otherwise then it did at the first Entrance of Christianity into the world. For there was an Emanation of Light and Truth from the Gospel which affected the minds of men, by whom yet the whole of it in its general Design, was opposed and persecuted. For from thence the very vulgar sort of men became to have better apprehensions and notions of God and his properties, or the Original and Rule of the Universe, then they had arrived unto in the midnight of their Paganism. And a sort of learned speculative men there were, who by virtue of that Light of Truth which sprung from the Gospel, and was now diffused into the minds of men, reformed and improved the old Philosophy, discarding many of those falsehoods and impertinences wherewith it had been encumbered. But when this was done, they still maintained their cause on the old principles of the Philosophers, and indeed their opposition unto the Gospel was far more plausible and pleadable than it was before. For after they had discarded the gross conceptions of the common sort about the divine Nature and Rule, and had blended the Light of Truth which brake forth in Christian Religion with their own Philosophical notions, they made a vigorous Attempt for the reinforcement of Heathenism against the main Design of the Gospel. And things have not as I said, fallen out much otherwise in the Reformation. For ⟨p. 86⟩as by the Light of Truth which therein brake forth, the Consciences of even the vulgar sort are in some measure freed from those Childish Affrightments which they were before in Bondage unto; so those who are Learned have been enabled to reduce the Opinions and Practices of their Church, into a more defensible posture, and make their Opposition unto the Truths of the Gospel more plausible than they formerly were. Yea that Doctrine which in the way of its Teaching and Practice among them, as also in its effects on the Consciences of men, was so horrid as to drive innumerable persons from their Communion in that and other things also, is now in the new Representation of it, with the artificial covering provided for its former effects in practice, thought an Argument meet to be pleaded for a return unto its entire Communion.

It is fallen out herein not much otherwise then it did at the first Entrance of Christianity into the world. For there was an Emanation of Light and Truth from the Gospel which affected the minds of men, by whom yet the whole of it in its general Design, was opposed and persecuted. For from thence the very vulgar sort of men became to have better apprehensions and notions of God and his properties, or the Original and Rule of the Universe, then they had arrived unto in the midnight of their Paganism. And a sort of learned speculative men there were, who by virtue of that Light of Truth which sprung from the Gospel, and was now diffused into the minds of men, reformed and improved the old Philosophy, discarding many of those falshoods and impertinencies wherewith it had been encumbred. But when this was done, they still maintained their cause on the old principles of the Philosophers, and indeed their opposition unto the Gospel was far more plausible and pleadable than it was before. For after they had discarded the gross conceptions of the common sort about the divine Nature and Rule, and had blended the Light of Truth which brake forth in Christian Religion with their own Philosophical notions, they made a vigorous Attempt for the reinforcement of Heathenism against the main Design of the Gospel. And things have not as I said, fallen out much otherwise in the Reformation. For