John Trapp on Proverbs 28:15

Verſ. 15. As a roaring Lion, Latrocinium cum privilegio. and a ranging Bear] Regiment without righteouſneſs turns into tyranny; and becomes no better than robbery by authority. Look how the Lion frayes the poor beaſts with his roaring, ſo that they have no power to ſtirre, and then preys upon them with his teeth; And as the Bear ſearches them out and tears them limb-meal: So deal Tyrants with their poor Subjects, Zeph. 3.3. Her Princes within her are roaring Lions, her Judges evening Wolves, they gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Such were thoſe Cannibals in Davids dayes, that eat up Gods people as they eat bread, Pſal. 14.4. ſuch thoſe miſcreants in Micah, who did eat the fleſh of Gods people, and flayd their skin, that brake their bones, and chopt them in peeces as for the pot, chap. 3.3. Much like thoſe American Cannibals, who when they take a Priſoner, feed upon him alive, and by degrees: cutting off from his body now a meal and then a meal, which they roaſt before his eyes, ſearing up the wounded place with a fire-brand, to ſtaunch the bloud, to the unutterable aggravation of his horrour and torment. Such a Lion Rampant was Nero, 2 Tim. 4.17. I was delivered, ſaith St. Paul, out of the mouth of the Lion. Tertullian calls him, The Dedicator of the condemnation of the Chriſtians; whom he uſed as bad almoſt as the Spaniards at this day doe the poor Indians, under pretence of converting them to the faith. Their own Writers tell us, that within the ſpace of forty years twenty ſeven millions of people were deſtroyed, and that with ſuch cruelties as never were heard of before. Let every good man bleſſe himſelf out of the pawes and jaws of theſe bloudy Catholicks, more ſavage and fierce than the wild beaſts, as they ſoon ſhew when armed with power, as were eaſie to inſtance. See the Babylonian cruelty Graphically deſcribed, Jerem. 51.34. and ſee whether it be not matched and overmatched by myſtical Babylon. The ranging Lion, and ravening Bear is nothing to that Man of Sin, that hath dyed all Chriſtendome with the bloud of Gods Saints, and dunged it with their carcaſes. This Oſtrich can digeſt any metal, eſpecially money: witneſſe his incredible exactions, here in England, anciently called the Popes Aſſe. This Cannibal is a Pickrel in a Pond, or Shark in the Sea, devours the poorer, as they the leſſer Fiſhes: Not unlike that cruel Prince mentioned by Melanchton, who to get money of his miſerable Subjects, uſed to ſend for them, and if they refuſed to furniſh him with ſuch ſums of money as he demanded, he would firſt knock out one of their teeth, and then another, threatning to leave them none at all.