9. If you say, “But he _preached Christ_ in a different manner in his epistles;” I answer, He did not there preach at all: not in that sense wherein we speak: for _preaching_ in our present question, means, speaking before a congregation. But waving this, I answer, 2. His epistles are directed, not to unbelievers, such as those we are now speaking of, but _to the saints of God in Rome, Corinth, Philippi_ and other places. Now unquestionably he would speak more of Christ to these, than to those who were without God in the world. And yet, 3. Every one of these is full of the law, even the epistles to the _Romans_ and the _Galatians_: in both of which he does what you term preaching the law, and that to believers as well as unbelievers.
10. From hence ’tis plain, you know not what it is, to _preach Christ_, in the sense of the apostle. For doubtless St. _Paul_ judged himself to be _preaching Christ_, both to _Felix_, and at _Antioch_, _Lystra_, and _Athens_. From whose example every thinking man must infer, That not only the declaring the love of Christ to sinners, but also the declaring that he will come from heaven in flaming fire, is, in the apostle’s sense, _preaching Christ_. Yea, in the full scriptural meaning of the word. To _preach Christ_, is, to preach what he hath revealed, either in the old or new Testament: so that you are then as really preaching Christ, when you are saying, _The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God_, as when you are saying, _Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world_!
♦10. Consider this well: that to _preach Christ_, is to preach all things that Christ hath spoken; all his promises, all his threatnings and commands; all that is written in his book. And then you will know how to preach Christ, without making void the law.
11. “But does not the greatest blessing attend those discourses, wherein we peculiarly preach the merits and sufferings of Christ?”
Probably, when we preach to a congregation of mourners or of believers, these will be attended with the greatest blessing: because such discourses are peculiarly suited to their state. At least, these will usually convey the most comfort. But this is not always the greatest blessing. I may sometimes receive a far greater, by a discourse that cuts me to the heart and humbles me to the dust. Neither should I receive that comfort, if I were to preach or to hear no discourses but on the sufferings of Christ. These by constant repetition would lose their force and grow more and more flat and dead: ’till at length they would become a dull round of words, without any spirit or life or virtue. So that thus _to preach Christ_, must in process of time, make void the gospel as well as the law.