Zechariah 13:3

And it shall come to pass, [that] when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.

Ver. 3. And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy] Here the prophet showeth how God will effect the former promise. He will first give unto his people a spirit of judgment, and then a spirit of burning, as Isaiah 4:4, so that they shall be able to discern both good and evil, and not be led away with the error of the wicked, to fall from their own steadfastness, Hebrews 5:14 2 Peter 2:17. They shall also be adeo perciti zelo, so carried on by zeal of God's glory, and so blessedly blown up, as I may so say, in his cause, that they shall fall upon their dearest relations in this case, and labour to bring their own children to condign punishment, according to the law of God in that behalf provided, Deuteronomy 13:8,9. Neither let any object here, that this is Old Testament: we find no such thing in the gospel, for the prophet here speaketh of the times of the gospel Zec 12:10 and of the kingdom of Christ. Sequitur ergo, saith Mr Calvin here well and worthily, non mode legem illam fuisse Iudaeis positam, quemadmodum nugantur fanatici homines, qui vellent hodie sibi permitti orbis, turbandi licentiam; sed extenditur ad nos etiam eadem lex. It followeth, therefore, that that law, Deuteronomy 13:9, was not made for the Jews only (as some brain sick people conceit it, who would fain get leave to trouble the world with their fopperies), but the same law extendeth itself even to us; for if at this day thieves, and witches, and adulterers, &c., are held worthy of punishment, how much more are heretics, seducers, blasphemers, who poison men's souls, rob God of his glory, confound the whole order of the Church, &c. See Rom 13:4 1 Peter 2:13,14, and hold to that old rule, Non distinguendum, ubi scriptura non distinguit, Men must not distinguish where the Scripture doth not.

That his father] In whose heart there is naturally an ocean of love to his own child, as we see in David toward Absalom, in old Andronicus, the Greek emperor, in our William the Conqueror, and Maud, his wife, toward their unnatural son, Robert Curtuoise, whom she maintained out of her own coffers in his quarrel for Normandy; which the king her husband knew, and took as a cause rather of displeasure than of hatred, as proceeding from motherly indulgence for advancing their son.

That begat him] This is twice here repeated, for honour's sake, to these zealots, who had forgotten all natural and carnal respects for the vindication of God's glory and his sincere service. See Matthew 10:37. See Trapp on " Mat 10:37 "

Thou shalt not live] sc. To do more mischief, and to draw more souls to the devil. Non Catilinae te genui sed partita, said Aulus Fulvius, when he slew his own son taken in Catiline's conspiracy; I begat thee not for Catiline, but for thy country. More to be commended a great deal than Philip II, that bloody King of Spain, who said openly, that he had rather have no subjects than Lutheran subjects; that he would not leave a Lutheran in his dominions; that if he thought his shirt smelt of that heresy, he would tear it from his own back; and out of a blind zeal he suffered his oldest son, Charles, to be murdered by the cruel Inquisition, because he seemed to favour our profession. For which noble exploit that mouth of blasphemy, the Pope, gave him this commendation, Non pepercit filio suo, sed dedit pro nobis: He spared not his own son, but gave him up for us. Oh horrible!

For thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord] Lies in hypocrisy, 1Ti 4:12 Revelation 2:24, doctrines of devils, depths of Satan, that artificer of lies, and father of them, John 8:44, which yet he would fain father and fasten upon the God of Amen, or of truth, as he is called, Psalms 31:5; like as varletesses a beget bastards, and lay them at honest men's doors to be kept: "Thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord." This is to substitute the devil in the place of God, or to transform God, so as that he should nothing differ from the devil. No wonder, therefore, though he that break the least commandment, and teach men so, be called least in the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 5:19, especially if he pretend God's authority for it, as the false prophets of old, and the Swenckfeldian heretics slate entitle themselves, The confessors of the glory of Christ; for this is the highest indignity, or rather contumely, that can be put upon God; it is a more detestable evil than to kill an innocent man; yea, to commit parricide, or treason. Imo quaecunque poterunt numerate scelera non pervenient ad hoc crimen, saith Calvin upon the text. Let sectaries and seducers look to it, those harmless, hornless creatures, as they would be accounted.

Shall thrust him through when he prophesieth] As Phineas did that stinking couple in the flagrancy of their lust, Numbers 25:8, and as Levi, in like case, consecrated himself to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, Exodus 32:29. He said unto his father and mother (when God's glory required it), I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor know his own children, Deuteronomy 33:9. All natural relations and self-respects should be drowned in the glory of God and the good of our own and other men's souls. They should be even swallowed up thereby, as the fuel is by the fire, and as the sorcerer's serpents were by Moses' serpent, or the fat kine by the lean.

a A person of a low, mean, or knavish disposition; a knave, rogue, rascal. ŒD