The history of science in Britain in the 17th century has attracted the attention of many researchers, for most of them believe that the first Scientific Revolution gave birth to modern science. Neo-Platonism, which revived in the 15th century in Europe, contributed to many achievements in natural philosophy by the 17th century, but had almost no impact on British researchers, who just followed the so-called “experimental philosophy” of Francis Bacon. Through analysis of the minutes of the Royal Society between 1660 and 1687, we have found that the research methods of British scientists changed from Bacon’s method to the mathematical method, which was praised highly by the Neo-Platonists. In the 1670s, the Fellows of the Royal Society realized that Bacon’s method was not the key to the universe, with the result that the mathematical method was introduced into their research. At the end of 1680s, many Fellows used this method very widely. The second half of the 17th century is the age of the transformation of the research methods of British science, the background of this transformation is the revival of Neo-Platonism, and the outcome is the establishment of the theory of gravity.Keywords  17th century, the Royal Society of London, Neo-Platonism, research methods