John Trapp on Hosea 6:8

Verſ. 8. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity,] Another Poeniropolis; ſuch a city there was in Greece, and ſo called by king Philip, for the naughtineſſe of the Inhabitants. This Gilead was one of thoſe ten cities of refuge beyond Jordaen, given to the Prieſts for a poſſeſſion, Joſh. 21.36, &c. and probably the chief city, which therefore bare the name of the whole countrey, as Athens was called the Greece of Greece. The inhabitants thereof (though Levites) were the worſt of men, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. workers of iniquity, ſuch as did wickedly with both hands, earneſtly wearying themſelves in the Devils drudgery; and then ſitting down to reſt them in the chair of peſtilence. There is not a worſe creature upon earth, or ſo fit for hell, as a profane Prieſt, a debauched Miniſter, Mat. 5.13. Corruptio optimi peſsima, as the ſweeteſt wine makes the ſowreſt vinegar, as the fineſt fleſh is reſolved into the vileſt earth; and as the whiteſt ivory burnt, becomes the blackeſt coal: Who would have looked for ſo much wickedneſſe at Gilead, at Shiloh, at Anathoth, at Jeruſalem where the Prieſts and Scribes bare ſway, and did dominari in ſuggeſtis? And yet that once faithful city was become an harlot: it was full of judgement, righteouſneſſe lodged in it,Iſay. 1.21. but now murderers, In our Savours time it was Prophetarum macellum, the ſlaughterhouſe houſe of the Saints; as now Rome is, and once London was in bloody Bonners dayes:Act. & Mon. whom a certain good woman once told in a letter, that he was deſervedly called the common cut-throat, and general flaughter-ſlave to all the Biſhops of England. At his death he boaſted (as Stokeſley had done before him) how many heretikes he had burned: ſeven hundred ſaints in four or five yeers ſpace thoſe bloody and deceitful men ſent to heaven, in fiery charets. There are none ſo cruel to the lives of men as wicked Clergy.

Gilead was polluted with blood,]Ezek. 33.7. & 3.18. not onely with the blood of ſouls, (by their default drowned in perdition and deſtruction) but of bodies too, deſtroyed by their hands or means. The Prieſts of theſe times may ſeem, by what is ſaid of them in the next verſe, to have been men of their hands, the ſworn ſword-men of the devil, ſuch as was Timotheus Herulus Biſhop of Alexandria, Anno 467. Pope Innocent who threw Peters keyes into the river Tiber, and took up Pauls ſword, as he called it, and that Philip Biſhop of Beau-vieu in France, taken in a skirmiſh by our Richard the firſt, who ſent his armour to the Pope with theſe words engraved on it, Vide num filii tui tunica ſit, vel non, See whether this be the coat of thy ſon, or of a ſon of Mars. Theſe, and their like in their ſeveral generations, were non Paſtores ſed Impoſtores, non Doctores ſed Seductores, non Epiſcopi ſed Apoſcopi, as an Ancient hath it: And indeed, the Church hath ever been ſo peſtered with leud and lazy Miniſters (thoſe dehoneſtamenta Cleri) that Chryſoſtome thought there were ſcarce any of that order in his time, that could be ſaved: Hierome ſaith, that the paucity of ſuch as were good, had made them very precious. And Campian cries out, not altogether without cauſe (Malice may be a good informer though an ill Judge) Miniſtris eorum nihil vilius; Now this is here inſtanced as an odious tranſgreſſion of the covenant, when ſuch as made ſuch a ſhew of ſacrifice to God, ſhould exerciſe ſo little mercy to men: when ſuch as ſhould be Teachers, were turned Tyrants and bloodſuckers.