cal country. The
contrast between mere worldly and spiritual life, between the living and
dead members of the Church, was practically abolished, though there
still remained a theoretical distinction between the visible and
invisible Church. As to the world outside the pale of the Church, the
Jews and Heathen, there was no thought whatever. Men believed they had
done their whole duty when they had roundly combated the other Christian
Churches. Thus lived the State Church in quiet confidence of its own
safety and pure doctrine at the time when the nation was recovering from
the devastations of the Thirty Years' War. 'In the times succeeding the
Reformation,' says a Wuertemberg pastor of the past century, 'the greater
portion of the common people trusted that they would certainly be saved
if they believed correct doctrines; if one is neither a Roman Catholic,
nor a Calvinist, and confesses his opposition, he cannot possibly miss
heaven; holiness is not so necessary after all.'"[24]

The enemies of Pietism have confounded it with Mysticism. There are
undoubted points in common, but Pietism was aggressive instead of
contemplative; it was practical rather than theoretical. Both systems
made purity of life essential, but Mysticism could not guard against
mental disease, while Pietism enjoyed a long season of healthful life.
The latter was far too much engaged in relieving immediate and pressing
wants to fall into the gross errors which mark almost the entire career
of the former. Pietism was mystical in so far as it made purity of heart
essential to salvation; but it was the very antipodes of Mysticism when
organized and operating against a languid and torpid Church with such
weapons as Spener and his coadjutors employed. Boehme and Spener were
world-wide apart in many respects; but in purity of heart they were
beautifully in unison.

Pietism commenced upon the principle that the Church was corrupt; that
the ministry were generally guilty of gross neglect; and that the people
were cursed with spiritual death. It proposed as a theological means of
improvement: I. That the scholastic theology, which reigned in the
academies, and was composed of the intricate and disputable doctrines
and obscure and unusual forms of expression, should be totally
abolished. II. That polemical divinity, which comprehended the
controversies subsisting between Christians of different communions,
should be less eagerly studied and less frequently tre