John Trapp on Hosea 2:4

Verſe 4. And I will not have mercy upon her children] Lo here another, And to thoſe foure afore; and more dreadfull then the reſt: Like as that in the 16. of Jeremy verſ. 13. where I will not ſhew you favour, was worſe to them then their captivity in a ſtrange countrey. Say that God do caſt off his people, yet if he ſay,Ezek. 7.5. they ſhall be as if I had not caſt them off, and will hear them Zech. 10.6. the affliction is nothing ſo great, as when he ſends an evill, an onely evill without mixture of mercy, as here. Oh, this pure wrath, this judgment without mercy muſt needs be very heavy: when it is once grown to hatred, there is little hope. Hoſ. 9.15. All their wickedneſſe is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. God is not of himſelf [non-Latin text not transcribed] a hater of mankind, but the contrary, Titus 3.4. But ſuch is the venemous nature of ſin, and ſo contrary it is to Gods both holy nature and juſt law, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. that he cannot but hate it in whomſoever he finds it: yet with this difference, that he pitties it rather in his Saints, & hates it in his enemies: as we hate poyſon in a toad, but we pitty it in a man: becauſe in the one it is their nature, in the other, their diſeaſe. And as revenge is the next effect of hatred, wicked men may expect no better dealing from God, then a man would afford to his ſtubborn enemy. Pharoah had plague upon plague: neither did the Lord leave him, till he had daſht the breath out of his body: ſo true is that of the Pſalmiſt,Pſal. 18. With the froward thou wilt wreſtle, and that of Solomon, The back ſlider in heart ſhall be filled with his own wayes. He hath made a match with miſchief, he ſhall have his belly-full of it.Prov. 14, He would needs have his own way, and had it, (for I would have purged him, but he would not be purged) Now I will have my way another while: for thou ſhalt not be purged from thy filthineſſe any more, till I have cauſed my fury to reſt upon thee, Ezek. 24.13. So our Saviour to thoſe refractory Jewes in the Goſpell. I would have gathered thee as the hen gathereth her chickens, I would but thou wouldſt not: therefore they ſhall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee. And I will not have mercy upon her children] Lo, God is ſo incenſed by a generall defection, that he will make havock and deſtroy even the mother with the children, (which was Jacobs great fear, Gen. 32.11.) yea he will daſh the mother in pieces upon the children as Shalman did at Betharbel Hoſ. 10.14 he will put young and old into the ſame bag together, as fowlers deal by birds, which yet was forbidden by a law, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Qualis mater talis filia. Partus ſequitur ventrem. Deut. 22.6. his eyes ſhall not ſpare children, as Iſai. 13.19. And why? For they are the children of whoredoms] They are maliex malis, as Hierom interprets it: they love and live in the adulteries of their mother: they take after her, as the birth uſually followeth the belly, and as in a Syllogiſme, the concluſion followes the weaker propoſition. Thoſe Jewes in the Goſpel boldly boaſted to our Saviour that they were not the children of fornication, for they had Abraham to their father Joh. 6.33. nay, God to their father verſ. 41, But he as boldly telleth them, that they a e[illegible: 1 letter]a baſtardly brood, yea a ſerpentine ſeed; and that they were of their father the devil, verſ. 44. And in another place, as Serpents, ſaith He, ye generation of vipers, how can ye eſcape the damnation of hell. If mercy interpoſe not, as the cold grave muſt one day hold your bodies, ſo hot hell your ſouls. But I will have no mercy upon her children: for they are the children of fornications] i.e. they are not onely miſbegotten and illegitimate, (which though no fault of theirs, yet is their reproach, as hath been ſaid in the Notes on the former chapter) but they are children of fornications in an active ſenſe too; they have learned of their mother to fornicate: they are as good at reſiſting the holy Ghoſt, as ever their Fathers were, Acts 7.51. they fill up the meaſure of their fathers fias, that wrath may come upon them to the utmoſt. Children as they derive from their parents a curſed birth blot which comes by propagation; ſo they are very apt to fall into their vices by imitation: and then they [illegible: 1 letter]ue both their own and their parents iniquities.