to the Explanations of the Doar-ine, &c. 8 5 Somnia, terrores .Magici, miracula, faze Noëlurni Le/mires, portentaq; Thefäla - -- Were the principal obje &s of their Creed, and matter of their. Religious Converfation. That'very Church it Pelf is com- paratively at eafe from thefe things unto what it was before the Reformation;. though fo much of them is fú11 retained,.. as to blind the Eyes of men from difcerning the Necejfity as . well as the Truth of the Evangelical Do &rice of Juftifi- cation It is fallen out herein not much otherwife then it did at the firft Entrance of Cbriflianity into the world. For there was an Emanation of Light and Truth from the Gofpel which . affe&ed the minds of men, by whom yet the whole of it in its general Defign, was oppofed and perfecuted. For from thence the very vulgar fort of men became to have better ap -- prehenfions and notions of God and his properties, or the Original and Rule of the Univerfe, then they had arrived unto in the midnight of their Paganifm. And a fort of learned #eculative men there were, who by virtue of that Light of Truth which fprung from the Gofpel, and was now díftûfed into the minds of men, reformed and improved the old Pbilofophy, difcarding many of thofe falfhoods and imp pertinencies wherewith it had been encumbred. But when this was done,they maintained their cauíè on the old prin ciples of the Philofophers, and indeed theiroppofition unto, the Gofpel was far more plaufble and pleadable than it was before. For after they had difearded the grofs conceptions . of the common fort about the divine Nature and Rule, and . had blended the Light of Truth which brake forth in Chri flianReligionwith their own Philofipbical notions,, they made . a vigorous Attempt for the reinforcement of Heat-henifm againfi the main Defign of the Gofpel., And things have not as I Laid, fallen out much otherwife in. the Reformation.. For al
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