and ignorant men who knew how "to speak to the
hearts of the people" were infinitely preferred to any educated
minister.

The strife ran very high. While there was an assimilation of the
Voetians to the Cocceians in the application of the allegorical
principle of interpretation, there was a moral retrogression of the
latter which greatly reduced their strength. This arose from the
defective views of Cocceius on the sanctity of the Sabbath. His
disciples carried his unfortunate opinion far enough to gain the favor
of the worldly and immoral classes. The freest customs and gayest
fashions were imported from France, and Cocceian ministers made it their
boast that they designed to keep up with the times. More spiritual
adherents became disaffected by the growing impiety. Koelman, a layman,
and Lodensteyn, a clergyman, gave the alarm that the kingdom of Christ
had become secularized and corrupt. The latter would not baptize the
children of unbelievers nor hold any communion with them. De Labadie,
formerly a Jesuit but afterward a French minister, blew the clarion of
reform. The watchword on all sides was, "Separate ye my people." Nothing
but the stringency of his rules and the counter-efforts of the
government prevented the pious masses from joining the reformer.
Mystical sects, influenced by Jacob Boehme and Spinoza, appeared here
and there. Chiliastic ideas spread abroad in proportion as men despaired
of the speedy regeneration of the church through natural
instrumentalities. All was commotion and disruption, and, for a time,
everything seemed to be on the downward course to ruin.

But the imminence of the danger brought a speedy and violent reaction.
The persecution of the French Huguenots drove them across the boundary
line. The Dutch true to their traditional hospitality, received them
with open arms. The guests returned their welcome by diffusing new
spiritual life through the hospitable country. The Cocceians laid off
their worldly habits. Days of fasting and prayer were appointed by the
civil and ecclesiastical authorities, while an increasing love for the
church, as bequeathed by the fathers, was overspreading the land. The
attachment to what was old and time-honored became a glowing enthusiasm.
Sharp distinctions between parties disappeared. Men who had formerly
been violently arrayed against each other now expressed a disposition to
unite in one common effort to restore the church to her former purity.
Brokel,