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Abstract
In 1700 the Reformed minister Wilhelmus à Brakel published a voluminous compendium of theology in the vernacular for a Dutch lay audience. The book immediately proved a best-seller. Still in print, it remains highly valued as a work of devotional literature among Dutch neo-calvinists. In the third edition (1707) the author added a new chapter, delineating Reformed orthodoxy against various forms of ‘natural’ religion. Brakel appears to have been very apprehensive of the developments in German Pietism. The genesis and content of the new chapter, warning his audience ‘against Pietists, Quietists, and … Spiritless Religion Under the Guise of Spirituality’ show how a prominent minister like Brakel found himself moving the frontiers between Reformed orthodoxy and rationalism, reacting against some of the pietisms of his day, and evolving towards a ‘new Protestantism.’