Zealotry

“ It is sad to observe what odious actions are committed in all ages of the world, by the instigation of misguided zeal! And what a shame an imprudent zealot is to his profession! while making himself ridiculous in the eyes of the adversaries, he brings his profession itself into contempt, and maketh the ungodly think that the religious are but a company of transported brain-sick zealots; and thus they are hardened to their perdition. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is by no means improbable that zealots may have given their lives for a religion which had never effectually restrained their vindictive or their licentious passions. We learn indeed from fathers of the highest authority that, even in the purest ages of the Church, some confessors, who had manfully refused to save themselves from torments and death by throwing frankincense on the altar of Jupiter, afterwards brought scandal on the Christian name by gross fraud and debauchery, 479 For the nonjuring divines great allowance must in fairness be made. ”

“ Will you, then, get all follies, like fashions, from above downward, as a wind always roars in the upper regions of the atmosphere before it whistles down below at our windows?—And where, then, is there an imperial recess or a vicariate conclusion which forbids a German of the empire to play the fool? I hope, Zeusel, a time is yet to come when you and I and every one will have sense enough to have his own, and his own private folly, begotten of his flesh and blood, as Autodidact in all folly and wisdom.—O men, poor creatures! ”

“ Remember, that the zeal regulated by wisdom seeks the salvation, and not the defamation, of the brother it wishes to edify; that it loves not to injure; that, in order to render itself useful, it studies to render itself amiable; that it is more affected with the misfortune and loss of its brother, than irritated against, or scandalized by, his errors; that, far from going to publish them to others, it would wish to be enabled to conceal them from itself; and that the zeal which censures them, far from lessening the evil, serves only to augment the scandal. ”

“ But perhaps many of you are affrighted at the multitude of those zealots, and at their audaciousness, as well as at the advantage they have over us in their being higher in place than we are; for these circumstances, as they have been occasioned by your negligence, so will they become still greater by being still longer neglected; for their multitude is every day augmented, by every ill man's running away to those that are like to themselves, and their audaciousness is therefore inflamed, because they meet with no obstruction to their designs. ”

“ Zeal without knowledge, feeling without understanding, ever defeat their own ends. Mere passion is blind; and dashing recklessly forwards, it more commonly rushes to its own destruction, than accomplishes that of its adversary. ”

“ It is aroused at the sight of excesses, injustices, scandals, frauds; it seeks to destroy sin, and to correct the sinner. It is often not only a privilege, but a duty. It supposes, naturally, judgment, prudence, and discretion, and excludes all selfish motives.
Zeal in an inferior and more common degree is called indignation, and is directed against all things unworthy, low and deserving of contempt. It respects persons, but loathes whatever of sin or vice that is in, or comes from, unworthy beings. It is a virtue, and is the effect of a high sense of respectability. ”

“ I doubt not that you will find among your comrades some who are extreme sectaries, and others who are scoffers and disbelievers. Be advised by me, friend, and avoid both the one and the other. For the zealot is a man who not only defends his own right of worship, wherein he hath justice, but wishes to impose upon the consciences of others, by which he falls into the very error against which he fights. ”

“ A most amiable excess, and yet an excess by which, I am afraid, subjects may be as liable to be spoiled as children. But I am willing to see these clamours in a less culpable light, and to derive them from a much better motive; I mean from a zeal against lewd and disorderly houses. But zeal in this case, as well as in all others, may hurry men too far, and may plunge them headlong into the greater evils, in order to redress the lesser. ”

“ Or, if it is really nothing more than an extravagant zeal for the bull that actuates them, they teach us how dangerous it is for them to decide arbitrarily in causes that may exclude the participation of the sacraments. Their pretended zeal becomes a passion that blinds them; prejudice shuts their eyes to the consequences of their conduct. ”

“ As His disciples watched Him on an occasion, they remembered that it was written: "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." Zeal is not a very popular quality because it is always disturbing the equanimity and self-complacency of lukewarm people. And then, we dislike to be thought fanatics. But I fancy that there will always be a touch of the fanatic about any very zealous Christian, and it is not worth while to suppress our zeal for fear of the world's judgment upon it. What we have to avoid is the misdirection of zeal. There is, no doubt, a zeal which is "not according to knowledge." ”

“ It is this zeal that causes members of the same state, and the same family, to detest and torment each other for opinions, and puerile ceremonies, which they are led to esteem as of the last importance. It is this zeal that has a thousand times, kindled those religious wars so remarkable for their atrocity. Finally, it is this zeal for religion which justifies calumny, treason, carnage, and, in short, the disorders most fatal to society. ”

“ But what assurance can such as Zoilus have, that the world will ever be convinced against an established reputation, by such people whose faults in writing are so very notorious; who judge against rules, affirm without reasons, and censure without manners: who quote themselves for a support of their opinions, found their pride upon a learning in trifles, and their superiority upon the claims they magisterially make; who write of beauties in a harsh style, judge of excellency with a lowness of spirit, and pursue their desire to decry it with every artifice of envy. ”

“ See here a false zeal, a mask of religion, and a passionate and seditious way of proceeding, tending only to incense and stir up others, all which are common to those who would oppress truth by cabal, and without proof. ”

“ If the Usurer & Trades-man frequent Sermons, let the buyer & borrower look to themselves. It is too common a thing to make zeale a lure & stale, to draw customers; a bait of fraud, a net to entrap; with malicious Doegs, to make it a stalking horse for revenge against the Priest, thereby to discharge their gall at Ministers and other Christians, for the omission and commission of such things, as themselves care not for ”

“ At other Times Zeal for the Cause of Truth may, tho’ preposterously enough, prompt a Man to blacken his Adversary with imaginary Crimes, in order, by a kind of pious Fraud, to prepossess the People against the Errors in his Doctrine and Practice. ”

“ No bangling hawke, but with a high flyer will mend her pitch: the poorest good companion, will doe thee some good; when Silas came, Paul burnt in the spirit: a lesser sticke may fire a billet; If thou findest none, let the coldnesse of the times heat thee, as frosts doe the fire; Let every indignation make thee zealous, as the dunstery of the Monkes, made Erasmus studious: one way to bee rich in times of dearth, is to engrosse a rare commodity, such as zeale is: now, if ever, they have destroyed thy Law ”

“ But they have mixed up in this scandal the name of the woman to whom I have given my name. I wish to know who did it, and why he did it.”
“Oh! for nothing, for fun! Because this Monsieur—how does he sign himself?—Puck had nothing else to write about.”
“It is certainly absurd,” remarked Zilah, “to imagine that a man can live in the ideal. At every step the reality splashes you with mud.” ”

“ A way of zeal may deceive many who may think their case unquestionable, because they are zealous for their way, and, as they think, their zeal is pure for God. Was not Paul, while a Pharisee, very zealous, when, out of zeal to his way, he persecuted the church, Philip. ”

“ He thought—or somebody, perhaps Eckermann, thought he thought—that we became good by sinning out our evil, and that evil still in us, in the shape of desire, was like prurient matter which ought to be discharged, and, at some time, would have to be, to the consequent benefit of the constitution. ”

“ These worthy Christians of the common kind, who knew not the force of spiritual exaltation for good and for evil, and only did their duty to their neighbours and said their prayers in the simple, old-fashioned manner, tried in vain to restrain the zealots. They perceived that these continued insults and swift-following punishments must at last end in real persecution. Eulogius, on the contrary, who set himself to answer their objections with texts out of the Bible and the Lives of the Saints, coveted such a result, and the zealots desired nothing better than the fire of persecution. ”

“ It consists very well with Christian patience not to dispense with sin, much less allow it; though we must show all meekness to men, yet we must show a just zeal against their sins. This their zeal was the more to be commended because it was according to knowledge, a discreet zeal upon a previous trial made of the pretences, practices, and tenets of evil men: Thou hast tried those that say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars. True zeal proceeds with discretion; none should be cast off till they be tried. ”

“ What vile pusillanimity! why thus respect the presumptuous power of popular errors and opinions, resting upon no foundation. True it is that an ill-timed zeal is always indiscreet, and calculated to irritate rather than convert; but to avow with frankness and modesty what we regard as an important truth, to do it even when we have reason to conclude it will not be palatable, and to meet willingly any ridicule or sarcasm which may be launched against it ”

“ I cannot tell him immediately the purport of her letter, except I could cure him of the violent and untractable passion of jealousy, and so serve him, and her, by disobeying her, in the article of secrecy, more than I should by complying with her directions.—But then this duelling, which custom has imposed upon every man who would live with reputation and honour in the world—how must I preserve myself from imputations there? ”

“ You would empty the press, you would empty the drawers, you would make a great heap of all my works and burn them! You would, would you not? Do you know that that would be a real murder, as much as if you assassinated some one? And what abominable cowardice, to kill the thoughts!”
“No,” she said at last, in a low voice; “to kill evil, to prevent it from spreading and springing up again!”
All their explanations only served to kindle anew their anger. ”

“ Zeal is a fine quality, but, when misapplied, frequently leads to grave consequences. In my defence of the prisoner I have had great difficulties to contend with. He has not assisted me in the slightest degree. It is no breach of professional confidence to say that, in my interviews with him, he has doggedly refused to give me any information concerning himself; but as I have before asserted that poverty and wretchedness were not to be accepted as marks of guilt, so I now declare that the prisoner’s strange reticence concerning himself is also no crime. Nor is eccentricity a crime. ”

“ If you have brought me to despair, you can only expect from me the actions of a desperate man. From my school here--from one prison to another! I shook off one tyranny because I found it intolerable; should I patiently bear this which oppresses me so much more heavily? Shall I not meet force with force? What would the Wild Zehren do were he alive and knew that his dearest friend was here in a dungeon? He would strive to set me free, though he had to burn down the prison or even the town, as those faithful fellows did, who delivered his ancestor! ”

“ Don't allow yourself to be too much elevated, but consider coolly on the uneasiness you have felt, and thereby judge of the favour you have received.
I hear there are zealots in the world who would willingly make mankind believe that they act from principle alone, and even would wish to die martyrs for their cause; and their lofty notions are ready to gain even on those of riper years. But be assured that at the bottom it is self-interest prevails. They only intend to promote their own ambitious views without the least regard to the welfare and happiness of others. ”