The
infamy of his life was soon forgotten, and only his teachings remained
to corrupt the young and injure the mature of the land. While his love
of money controlled his matrimonial alliances and literary labors, his
hatred of revealed religion distorted his whole moral and intellectual
nature. He is illustrative of the certain doom which awaits the man who
commits himself to the sole guidance of his doubts. Semler's moral life
was _in spite_ of erroneous opinions; Bahrdt's was in _conformity_ with
them. And what the latter was in his career and death is the best
comment that can be written on the natural effect of Rationalism. Would
that he had been the only warning; but he had his followers when his
creed became the fashion of the German church. The depth of his infamy
is only aggravated by the holy sphere in which he wrought fearful havoc
upon the succeeding generation. The Old Play says truly:
"That sin does ten times aggravate itself,
That is committed in an holy place;
An evil deed done by authority
Is sin and subornation; deck an ape
In tissue, and the beauty of the robe
Adds but the greater scorn unto the beast;
The poison shows worst in a golden cup;
Dark night seems darker by the lightning's flash;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds;
And every glory that inclines to sin,
The shame is trebled by the opposite.
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