John Trapp on Zechariah 1:5

Verſe 5. Your fathers where are they?] Is not the grave their houſe? have they not made their beds in the dark? are not they gone down to the Congregation houſe of all living Iob 30.23? Every man ſhould die the ſame day he is born; as being born a child of death: the wages of ſinne is death, and this wages ſhould bee paid him down preſently. But Chriſt beggs their lives for a ſeaſon 1 Tim. 4.10. he is the Saviour of all men, not of eternal preſervation, but of temporal reſervation. But what a ſad thing is it for men to dye in their ſinnes as theſe in the Text, and their Nephews did Iohn 8.21, 24. How may ſuch men, on their death-beds, ſay to their ſins, as Charles the fifth did of his honours, victories, riches, Abite hinc, abite longè, Go,Mornaeus. go, get you out of my ſight: or as Cornelius Agrippa the conjurer did to his familiar that uſed to accompany him in the ſhape of a dog, Abi à me perdit a beſtia, Joh. Manl. loc. com. 136. P. Sut. de vit. Caribuſian. quae me perdidiſti, Be gone thou wretched beaſt that haſt wrought my ruine: Petrus Sutorius ſpeaks of one that preaching a funeral ſermon on a religious man (as he calles him) and giving him large commendations, heard at the ſame time a voice in the Church, [non-Latin text not transcribed] mortuus ſum, judicat us ſum, damnat us ſum, I am dead, judged, and damned. The Devill preached Sauls funeral, 1 Sam. 28.19. though David made his Epitaph, 2 Sam. 1.

And do the Prophets live for ever?] Thoſe falſe Prophets (ſo Hierome ſenſeth it) that cryed peace, peace to your fathers, and made all fair weather before them, when the fierce wrath of God was even ready to burſt out upon them, as an overflowing ſcourge. But they doe better that underſtand it of Gods true Prophets, who are dead indeed (for wiſe men dye as well as fooles Pſal. 4[illegible: 1 letter].10. Good men dye as well as bad, Ezech. 21.4. yea good men oft, before the bad, Eſay 57.1.) but their words dyed not with them: the truth of their propheſies not onely lived for ever (for ever O Lord thy word is ſtabliſhed in heaven Pſal. 119.89.) but ſtruck in the hearts and fleſh of their perverſe hearers, like the envenomed arrowes of the Almighty throughout all eternity.Haeret lateri lethalis arundo Wicked men may, as the wounded Hart, frisk and skip up and down when the deadly arrow ſticks in their ribbes, but not ſo eaſily ſhake it off.