Verse 4. Will a lion roar in the forrest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den if he hath taken nothing?
Thirdly, whereas they were ready enough to despise all threatnings as vain, and nothing else but the ordinary tone of Prophets, who behoved still to quarrel and threaten, and yet they prospered well enough under Jeroboam their King: the Lord declares, that as a lion or young lion will not roar except he have a prey, or see one which he is presently to leap upon and take; so the Lord doth not threaten but where there is just cause, and where judge∣ment is to follow. Whence learne, 1. It is no new thing to see a people so plagued, as they stand not to contemn and despise the threatnings of God; for, so is here impor∣ted. Such as are forborne by God, or do enjoy present prosperity, they are emboldned thereby to neglect what God saith; but it is the hight of obstinacie, when men are feeling the truth of the word in sad afflictions, and yet do despise it, in what it threatens for the future. 2. How∣ever the Lord be absolute and soveraigne, and may yet for∣beare, yea and cure even them who prove themselves otherwise incorrigible under threatnings or judgements, Isa. 57.17, 18; Yet in his ordinary procedure, his threatnings do portend a storme, and that judgements are comming, and will come, except they be prevented by re∣pentance; for, the lions r••aring intimates that he hath a prey, or is to fall upon it. 3. God revealing his displeasure by threatnings, is very dreadfull, and will prove so, if sin∣ners provoke him to execute what he threatens; therefore is he compared to a lion, whose roaring is dreafull, and that so much the more, as when he roareth, he is about to teare the prey.