Zeal

“ All hopes shall shake the head at thee, and say: there goes the poison of purity, the perfection of impiety, the serpentine seducer of simplicity. Zeal herself will cry out upon thee, and curse the time that ever she was mashed by thy malice, who like a blind leader of the blind, sufferedst her to stumble at every step in Religion, and madest her seek in the dimness of her sight, to murder her mother the Church, from whose paps thou like an envious dog but yesterday pluckedst her. ”

“ Zeal for God, love for his fellow creatures, pleasure in the exercise of his newly discovered powers, impel him to become a preacher. He has no quarrel with the establishment, no objection to its formularies, its government, or its vestments. He would gladly be admitted among its humblest ministers. ”

“ From that disastrous hour, religion wore a new aspect in this unhappy country. The spirit of intolerance, no longer hooded in the darkness of the cloister, now stalked abroad in all his terrors. Zeal was exalted into fanaticism, and a rational spirit of proselytism, into one of fiendish persecution. ”

“ I answer that, Zeal, whatever way we take it, arises from the intensity of love. For it is evident that the more intensely a power tends to anything, the more vigorously it withstands opposition or resistance. ”

“ Zeal indeed should be always attended with prudence, to consider things well, and execute them in the best manner; to prevent mischiefs, or redress them with as much of sweetness, and as little acrimony as possible: and in desperate cases, or where the cure would prove worse than the disease, to suffer and pass them over; some souls having defects, as it were, incorrigible, which God permits to perfect them by humility; and others likewise, that have an intercourse with them, by patience and charity. ”

“ Clamors to find fulfill'd, which good men praise,
And only bad men joy to see undone!
O honor'd father! hide thee in thy grave
Deep as thou canst, for hence no succor comes;
Since from thy faithful subjects what revenge
Canst thou expect, when thus thy widow fails?
Alas! an adamantine strength indeed,
Past expectation, hath thy murderer built;
For this is the true strength of guilty kings,
When they corrupt the souls of those they rule.
THE CHORUS.
Zeal makes him most unjust; but, in good time,
Here, as I guess, the noble Laias comes. ”

“ There is nothing in which Men more deceive themselves than in what the World calls Zeal. ”

“ I. Zeal is a certain fervency of spirit arising out of a mixture of love and anger, causing men earnestly to maintain the worship of God and all things pertaining thereto, and moving them to grief and anger when God is in any way dishonoured. ”

“ Zeal in reproving 'thy neighbour,' and in study should not pass into wrath and hatred, disturbing the purity of his soul during prayer. He is deeply convinced of the 'justice of God's judgment.' He finds in it protection and solace from sorrow and the troubles of life if he is convinced of the justice of the Creator of all living creatures; He who sustains and guides them with a wisdom which the human intellect is only capable of grasping in a general way, but not in detail. ”

“ Zeal and diligence are the victorious enemies of sin and Satan. They bear not with sin: they are to it as a consuming fire is to the thorns and briers. Zeal burneth up lust, and covetousness, and pride, and sensuality. [594] It maketh such work among our sins, as diligent weeders do in your gardens; it pulleth up the tares, and burneth them. It stands not dallying with sin, nor tasting or looking on the bait, nor disputing with and hearkening to the tempter ”

“ If, on the other hand, for having zeal it suffices, for one motive or another, to spend in the service of any cause a vast amount of energy and efforts, alike for giving prevalence to this cause and for combating that which is opposed to it, above all that which opposes it with the force of repulsion which the truth has against error, — then I will say that these men have very much of zeal. Some of them bring to their ministry an ardor, an activity, sometimes even a devotedness, certainly worthy of a better cause. ”

“ The good zeal which monks should have.—There are two kinds of zeal: one that leads away from God to destruction, and one that leads to God and eternal life. Now these are the features of that good zeal which monks should cultivate: to honor one another; to bear with one another’s infirmities, whether of body or mind; to vie with one another in showing mutual obedience; to seek the good of another rather than of oneself; to show brotherly love one to another; to fear God; to love the abbot devotedly ”

“ It seeks practical ends by wise means, else it is enthusiasm. Zeal should be shown in active and useful devotion to the cause of religion, rather than in excitement and warm devotional exercise. Should be uniform, not periodical.—It should not depend upon the fluctuations of feeling, but should act upon principle. ”

“ Are we likely to win our wage, Eternal Life, if we do not work zealously, but waste the time of work in half-hearted trifling with our task?
No, we must be in earnest. We want zeal. How are we to acquire this? This is what the Holy Ghost gives. Before Pentecost the disciples were half-hearted, and when temptation and trial came, they fell away and did not follow their Master. But after the Holy Ghost came down, then they were of one heart and mind, and their souls were inflamed with zeal, they cared nothing what became of them, so long as they won the Kingdom of Heaven. ”

“ Indeed, the Zeal which they shew’d in Coming, and the Earnestness and Affection they shew’d in their Attention to what they heard, made it manifest what a Value People would all put upon the Worship of God, if they thought every Day they attended at the Church that it would be their Last. ”

“ Zeal is required in the cause of Religion; they only can feel it. The charge of singularity must be incurred; they only will dare to encounter it. Uniformity of conduct, and perseverance in exertion, will be requisite; among no others can we look for those qualities. ”

“ Again; as the promise of future recompense, and the doctrine of dependence upon divine agency, elevate the motives of benevolence from the level of earth to that of heaven, they would presently assume a character of dry and visionary abstraction, unless animated by an emotion of love, belonging to the same sphere. Zeal without love were a preposterous and dangerous passion: but Christian zeal must be warmed by no other love than that of him who, "for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich." ”

“ If any of these qualities be wanting, the zeal cannot be looked on as true Christian zeal. Firm indeed was that zeal of the Prophet Elias in his labors to bring back the people of Israel from idolatry to the worship of the true God; firm the zeal of the brave high-priest Mathathias and his sons, the Jewish heroes, namesakes of our holy apostles Simon and Jude, when they so bravely opposed the wicked King Antiochus in defence of the law of God, and exposed their lives in their efforts to keep their brethren in the true faith. ”

“ On the contrary, it is certain, if our Zeal were true and genuine, we should be much more angry with a Sinner than a Heretick; ”

“ So great is the Power of Persecuted Virtue, that it prevails, even upon those Enemies, who harbour the Memory of a Wrong, to convert it, first into a Desire of forgetting it, and without long Interposition of Time, produces a Zeal to support that Valour they first hated. ”

“ A true Christian must be enraged when he sees his God offended. He must aim himself with a just and holy severity to repress the offenders. He must have an ardent desire to extend the empire of his religion. A zeal, originating in this divine love, has been the source of the terrible persecutions of which Christians have so often been guilty. Zeal produces murderers as well as martyrs. It is this zeal that prompts intolerant man to wrest the thunder from the hand of the Most High to avenge him of his enemies. ”

“ I would have every Zealous Man examine his Heart thoroughly, and, I believe, he will often find, that what he calls a Zeal for his Religion, is either Pride, ”

“ John iii. 16. The zeal in itself is only energy; the sphere of its exercise is, in every instance, determined by the context. In Exod. xv. 5; Deut. iv. 24; Nah. i. 2, the zeal is the energy of wrath. In the passage before us, as in the Song of Solomon viii. 6, and in chap. xxxvii. 32: "For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and escaped ones out of Mount Zion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this," the zeal of God means the energetic character of His love to Zion.
We must, in conclusion, still make a few remarks, on the interpretation of vers. ”

“ It has always its own risks to run: the authorities at Jerusalem never forgave Jesus this first interference. By reforming an abuse they should never have allowed, He damaged them in the eyes of the people, and they could never forget it. Zeal also runs the risk of acting indiscreetly and taking too much upon it. In itself zeal is a good thing, but it does not exist “in itself.” It exists in a certain character, and where the character is imperfect or dangerous the zeal is imperfect or dangerous. ”

“ No wonder that the sons went to destruction, and incurred the anger of God. Zeal, therefore, of this kind is not a whit better than the other for furthering the salvation of souls, for it does not help to amend the lives of others, to lessen the number of their sins, or to extirpate their vices; nay, by too much indulgence it rather strengthens and confirms them in their bad habits. ”

“ Zeal is not of necessity religion, neither is it always of the same essence with poetry or patriotism. ”

“ Thomas defines zeal, "an intense love by which one is moved against and repels whatever is detrimental to the good of his friend, and does his best to prevent whatever is against the honour or the will of God." ”

“ Such impulses had need to be well examined, for ordinarily they will be found not consistent with a gospel spirit, which is always averse from acts of cruelty. Blind zeal sometimes may incite men to fearful work: yea the persecutors have often most of that spirit, as our Lord foretels, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he doth God service," John xvi. 2. Paul, in his pharisaical zeal, breathed out slaughter against the disciples. ”

“ In every home there grows some thorn, something, in other words, that needs correction; for the best soil is seldom without its noxious weed. Imprudent zeal, by seeking awkwardly to pluck out the thorn, often succeeds only in plunging it farther in, thus rendering the wound deeper and more painful. In such a case it is essential to act with reflection and great prudence. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent, says the Holy Spirit. [21] Prudent zeal is silent when it realizes that to be so is less hurtful than to speak. ”

“ Zeal is humble, and has eyes for nothing but its own wants; it is simple, and much more disposed to be credulous with regard to good than evil; it is merciful, and is always indulgent to the faults of others, in the same proportion as it is severe to its own weaknesses ”

“ Finally, then, it is undeniable and evident that these holy apostles have a right and title to the glorious name of Zelotes, that they have deserved it by their lives and deaths, and that in truth they were always true zelators of the honor of God and the salvation of souls; for they conformed their zeal exactly to the spirit, teaching, and example of Christ, uniting firmness with meekness, charity, and kindness, and thus in life and death they were most like their divine Saviour. ”

“ Zeal is faithful, and constant, and valiant, and therefore greatly pleaseth God: it sticks to him through persecution; the fire consumeth it not; many waters quench it not. But others are false-hearted: and those that have but a cold religion will easily be drawn or driven from their religion. They are so indifferent, that a little more of the world put into the balance, will weigh down Christ in their esteem. The hopes or fears of temporal things prevail with them, against the hopes and fears of things eternal. ”

“ If our Zeal finds fault with all who do not come up to our Heights, or who don’t express their Devotion in our way, it is not according to Knowlege, that is, it is not Discreet and Christian. If our great Love to GOD takes us up so much, that we think we may be morose and ill-natur’d to our Neighbour, 266 we express it in a very disagreeable way: And I dare say it wou’d be more acceptable to Him, if insted of spending it all in Rapture and Devotion, a part of it were employ’d in Imitating his Beneficence to our Fellow-Creatures. ”

“ The converts who were so promising and enthusiastic declined in zeal and fell back under the spell of worldliness. Zeal is a quality which is maintained with great difficulty, and the pull of the world, whether social or business, is steadily exercised. Converts in Ephesus, like converts in New York, felt that their friends were right who declared that they were quite unnecessarily strict, and that in order to serve Christ it was not necessary to turn their backs absolutely on Diana. ”

“ We are told by some of the Jewish Rabbins, that the first Murder was occasioned by a religious Controversy; and if we had the whole History of Zeal from the Days of Cain to our own Times, we should see it filled with so many Scenes of Slaughter and Bloodshed, as would make a wise Man very careful how he suffers himself to be actuated by such a Principle, when it only regards Matters of Opinion and Speculation. ”

“ The Frown of a Prince, and the Loss of a Pension, have indeed been found of wonderful Efficacy, to abstract Men’s Thoughts from the present Time, and fill them with Zeal for the Liberty and Welfare of Ages to come. [8] But I am inclined to think more favourably of the Author of this Prediction, than that he was made a Patriot by Disappointment or Disgust. If he ever saw a Court, I would willingly believe, that he did not owe his Concern for Posterity to his ill Reception there, but his ill Reception there to his Concern for Posterity. ”