John Trapp on Hosea 8:2

Verſe 2. Iſrael ſhall crie unto me,] It is their courſe and cuſtome to do ſo: they will needs do it though I take no delight in it. Hypocriſie is impudent, as chap. 5.6. and Ier. 3.4, 5. No nay, but it will deſpite God with ſeeming honour; and preſent him with a ludibrious devotion. Iſrael, though revolted and degenerated into Iezreel, chap. 1. ſhall crie, yea cry aloud, vociferabuntur, cry till they are hoarſe, as criers do: and unto me, but not with their heart, chap. 7.14. It is but clamor ſine ſide fatuus, an empty ring, that God regards not. For, not every one that ſaith unto him, Lord, Lord, &c Mat. 7.21. Many leane upon the Lord and ſay, Is not the Lord amongſt us? none evil can come unto us, Mic. 3.11. who yet ſhall hear, Diſcedite, Avaunt ye workers of iniquity: I know you not. Wo then to all profligate profeſſors, carnall Goſpellers: their prayers ſhall not profit them, neither ſhall they be a button the better for their loud cries to the moſt High, (Pro. 1.28. and odious fawnings,

My God, we know thee.] When their hearts are far from him. Of ſuch pretenders to him and his truth, it is that the Apoſtle ſpeaketh, Tit. 1.16. They profeſſe that they know God, (which yet God denies, Hoſ. 4.1. & 5.4.) but in works they deny him: being abominable, and diſobedient, and to every good work reprobate. To come and call God Father, the guide of our youth, and then to fall to ſinne, this is to do as evil as we can: We cannot eaſily do worſe, Jer. 3.4, 5. To cry, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord: and then to ſteal, murther, and commit adultery, &c. this is painted hypocriſie, Ier. 7.4, 9. when men ſhall take ſanctuary, and think to ſave themſelves from danger by a form of godlineſſe (as the Jews fable that Og king of Baſhan eſcaped in the flood by riding aſtride upon the Ark) when they are perfect ſtrangers to the power of it, this is to haſten and heap up wrath, Iob 36.13. Religion, as it is the beſt armour, ſo the worſt cloak: and will ſerve hypocrites as the diſguiſe Ahab put on, and periſhed. Caſtalio maketh this laſt clauſe to be the ſpeech of the bleſſed Trinity, We know thee O Iſrael: q. d. Though thou collogue and cry, My God: yet we know thine hypocriſie and the naughtineſſe of thy heart. But the former ſence is better, though the placing of the word Iſrael in the end of the verſe, ſeem to favour this: for thus it runs in the Hebrew, To me thy ſhall cry, My God, we know thee, Iſrael.