The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Ver. 13. The slothful man saith, There is a lion, &c.] ‘The lion is not so fierce as is painted,' saith the Spanish proverb; much less this sluggard's lion, a mere fiction of his own brain to cover and colour over his idleness. He pretends two lions for failing; first, Leo est foris, There is a lion abroad, or in the field, where his work lies, Psa 104:23 and another in the streets; - a likely matter; lions haunt not in streets, but in woods and wildernesses. Here is no talk of Satan, "that roaring lion," that lies couchant in the sluggard's bed with him, and prompts him to these senseless excuses. Nor yet of the "lion of the tribe of Judah," who will one day send out summons for sleepers, and tearing the very caul of their hearts in sunder, send them packing to their place in hell. Mat 10:28 But to hell never came any yet that had not some pretence for their coming thither. The flesh never wants excuses. Corrupt nature needs not be taught to tell her own tale. Sin and shifting came into the world together; and as there is no wool so coarse but will take some colour: so no sin so gross but admits of a defence. Sin and Satan are alike in this, they cannot abide to appear in their own likeness. Some deal with their souls as others deal with their bodies; when their beauty is decayed, they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses, and from others by painting; so their sins from themselves by false glosses, and from others by idle excuses.