6. The very first sermon of St. _Paul_’s, which is recorded, concludes in these words. _By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets, Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no wise believe, tho’ a man declare it unto you_, Acts xiii. 39, &c. Now it is manifest, all this is _preaching the law_, in the sense wherein you understand the term: even altho’ great part of, if not all his hearers, were either _Jews or religious proselytes_, ver. 43. and therefore probably many of them, in some degree at least, convinced of sin already. He first reminds them, That they could not be justified by the law of _Moses_, but only by faith in Christ: and then severely threatens them with the judgments of God, which is in the strongest sense _preaching the law_. 7. In his next discourse, that to the Heathens at _Lystra_, (ch. xiv. ver. 15, &c.) we do not find so much as the name of Christ. The whole purport of it is, That they should _turn from those vain idols, unto the living God_. Now confess the truth. Do not you think, If you had been there, you could have preached much better than he? I should not wonder, if you thought too, That his _preaching so ill_, occasioned his being _so ill treated_: and that his being _stoned_, was a just judgment upon him, for not _preaching Christ_! 8. To the jailor indeed, when _he sprang in and came trembling, and fell down before_ Paul _and_ Silas, _and said, Sirs, What must I do to be saved_, he immediately said, _Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ_. (ch. xvi. ver. 29, &c.) And in the case of one so deeply convinced of sin, who would not have said the same? But to the men of _Athens_ you find him speaking in a quite different manner, reproving their superstition, ignorance and idolatry; and strongly moving them to repent, from the consideration of a future judgment, and of the resurrection from the dead, (ch. xvii. ver. 24‒31.) Likewise _when_ Felix _sent for_ Paul, on purpose that he might _hear him concerning the faith in Christ_; instead of preaching Christ in _your_ sense (which would probably have caused the governor either to mock, or to contradict and blaspheme) _he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come_, till _Felix_ (hardened as he was) _trembled_. (ch. xxiv. ver. 24, 25.) Go thou and tread in his steps. _Preach_ Christ to the careless sinner, by _reasoning of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come_!