John Trapp on Hosea 12:11

Verſe 11. Is there iniquity in Gilead?] What in Gilead, a city of Prieſts? (See chap. 6. ver. 8. with the Note) yea Gilead is a city of thoſe that work iniquity, a very Poneropolis, a place of naughty-packs, chap. 4.15. Now there is not a worſe creature on earth, then a wicked Prieſt, nor a worſe place then a wicked Gilead The Hebrew hath it thus, Is Gilead iniquity? Or as Luther, Druſius, and others, [non-Latin text not transcribed] certè verè, profectè. Surely it is ſo. Confer Mich. 1.5. Gregory Nazianzen reports of Athens, that it was the plaguieſt place in the world for ſuperſtition. Our Univerſities were ſo in times of Popery, and began to be ſo again, a few years ſince. Revera Gilead eſt iniquitas, profectò vanitas ſunt, they were grown ſo incorrigibly flagitious, that they ſeemed to be as it were, transformed into ſinnes image. Some render the Text thus; Is there iniquity in Gilead? Are they onely vanity in Gilgal? They ſacrifice, bullocks, &c. and ſet this ſence upon it. What? think you the men of Gilead, thoſe beyond the river of Jordan, whom Tiglath Pileſen poyled and l[illegible: 1 letter]d captives, that they onely were guilty of idolatry, and you not, becauſe you remain at home, untouched of the Aſſyrian? Nay, ſaith He, the very entrance into the Countrey,Jun. & Trem. Gilgal it ſelf, ſo aboundeth with idolatry, that it is not to be doubted, but in the reſt of the parts of the kingdome, their altars are as thick as furrows in the field, that is to ſay, innumerable. Some think this laſt clauſe, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field (or of my fields, whereof I am chief Lord,Sadai. and wherein he ſhould have ſerved me, and not idols) hath reference to ſome ſuperſtitious way of theirs, of ſeeking God, by erecting altars in the furrows, for the fructifying of their fields[illegible: 1 letter] the Heathen did ſo to their Dij Terminales: and the Papiſts ſtill do ſo in their ſolemn Proceſſions, erecting croſſes and crucifixes in the bounds of their fields, and thereby thinking to get a bleſſing on their corn and paſtures. Turnovius, noteth here, that God in the old Teſtament would therefore have but one Altar, whereon to offer ſacrifice, and that to be at Jeruſalem onely, to teach them that Chriſt, the Anti-type of all their ſacrifices, ſhould once be offered up upon the altar of his Croſſe, a propitiation for their ſinnes, Heb. chap. 9. & 10. This Altar he alſo appointed to be in the Temple, that the ſacrificers might beleeve the gracious preſence of God with them, and might worſhip him in ſpirit and in truth.