Hosea 2:6 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

The Lord raiseth perplexities in the soul, to embarrass and entangle the poor sinner in the wild and mad career the sinner is pursuing. And as thorns and briars, which were in the curse pronounced on sin at the first, are suited to this purpose, the Lord will hedge up the sinner's way with them. Reader! do not overlook here how Jesus bore this eminently in his own sacred person, when he became the sinner's surety. You and I have found many a thorny path to our feet in our pilgrimage; but none but the ever blessed Jesus was crowned with thorns, as if to intimate that He should be pre-eminent in suffering, as He is pre-eminent in grace and glory. John 19:1-5. Well then, the Lord (we are told here) will make a hedge of thorns, to stop the sinner's way; and if this will not keep him back, he will make a wall also. For when the Lord is working by the sovereignty of his grace, to deter the soul he is bringing to himself, if one process will not accomplish the purpose, another shall. Reader! pause, and enquire what you know in your own heart of these things. Depend upon it, that it is by these things you live, and in this is the life of the soul.