oured to defend their own point
of view with greater dignity and learning.

Meanwhile the defects in the faith of the Pietists became greater, the
deterioration more striking. Since the process of spiritual
regeneration had become the secret act of a man's life, after which the
whole soul morbidly strained, all the bliss of salvation depended on
his admittance into the community of the pious. He who by a special act
of God's grace was brought into the condition of regeneration, lived in
a state of grace; his soul was guarded from all sin by the Lord; he
breathed a purer and more heavenly atmosphere, secure of the mercy of
the Lamb, already redeemed from sin here. But it was difficult for the
more cultivated minds to go through this spiritual process: it did not
prosper with all conscientious men, as it did with the jurist Johann
Jacob Moser. Touching are the accounts delivered to us of the strivings
of individuals, of the anguish and self-torture which fruitlessly
ground down body and soul. Among the weaker we find every kind of
self-delusion and hypocrisy. Very soon it became doubtful whether the
regenerate was an enthusiast or a deceiver: occasionally he was both at
the same time.

After Pietism had won the favour of persons of distinction and the
governing powers, it became a remunerative concern, a fashionable
thing, an assistance to very worldly objects. Generally those who
received the holiest revelations were tender, weak natures, whom one
could not suppose capable of the strenuous work which is necessary for
worldly service; they lived at the cost of their patrons. The artisans
were received into the society of the upper classes in order to assure
their spiritual progress, and whoever desired protection, hastened as
penitents to attend the meetings for edification, of some great lord,
which they preferred holding in special chambers prepared for the
purpose, rather than in the chapels of their castles. Sighs, groans,
wringing the hands, and talk about illumination, became now here and
now there a lucrative speculation. In the regenerate clergy, who held
the souls of weak nobles and gentry in their hands, might be found all
the faults peculiar to ambitious favourites, pride and mean
selfishness. Soon also the morality of many came into ill repute, and
when, after the decease of a devout lord, a society of ambitious
Pietists were expelled, a feeling of malicious pleasure was generally
excited.

Thus an opposit