The natural man has no apprehension of the Gospel. "What must I do?" is ever his cry. Man has done his work perfectly—that of self-destruction. He is wholly bent upon evil, altogether ruined. Hence he is a fitting object for the Gospel of God. Unbelief is the height of presumption: it plainly proves that we are seeking for some cause of God's love in the creature, which can never be. It is among the highest provocations the sinner can be guilty of against God, when, without the blood of Christ sprinkled on his conscience, he, in will-worship, calls God his Father. No cup of poison so deadly as that mingled cup of law and grace, of works and faith, which is presented to men by false teachers, instead of the Gospel of the grace of God. Yet, alas, do men gladly receive, and eagerly drink, seeking to satisfy conscience! To seek healing of soul from duties instead of the blood of Christ, is taking poison to cure disease. When we would consider the love of God in Christ, we are as one approaching the ocean: he casts a glance on the surface, but the depths he cannot sound. The Law and the Gospel Yet a sinner look at himself in the glass of God's holiness, he must see his own condemnation; but by faith in Jesus he beholds himself free from condemnation, and stands before God in Christ as Christ Himself. The Law was magnified by Christ, and made honourable; and therefore God in His righteousness must magnify for ever Christ and His members with Him. Under the Law they laboured first, and rested after (Exod. 20:8-11); but under the Gospel we rest first, by faith in Jesus, and then work. The Law begins with commands and ends with blessings; but the blessings are fruit upon lofty branches, which fallen man can never reach: he cannot and will not climb the tree. The Gospel, on the contrary, begins with promises; and promises give birth to precepts. The Law demands justice; the Gospel delights in mercy through satisfied justice. Moses blesses the law-doer; Jesus pardons the guilty and saves the lost. Every one who hears the Gospel has a door opened to him of escape from the wrath to come. In the Day of Judgment men shall know all the past. Forgetful hearers of the Gospel shall then with gnashing of teeth remember how they once neglected so great salvation (Heb. 2:3): their worm will never die, their fire never be quenched. (Mark 9:44.) No child of Adam has a right to anything from God save the wages of sin. Justice, apart from grace in Christ's cross, must allot to every sinner hell for his wages and portion. If the sinner is to have eternal life, he must have it as a free gift from God. Alas that thousands of sinners who hear the Gospel will not have it, because they are too proud to be saved on God's terms of pure grace!