great or so general concern, that the Apostles needed to go forth " into all the world," or to preach it to " every creature." Our Lord " came to seek and to save that which was lost ;" he came to open a way for the recovery of our fallen race, and to restore men to the happiness which they had forfeited by their iniquities : this is the salvation spoken of in the text, and justly termed, a " salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."
This salvation is to be obtained by faith ; " He that believeth shall be saved." By the term, " believing" we are not to understand a mere assent given to any particular doctrine ; for there is not any particular doctrine to which the most abandoned sinner, or even the devils themselves, may not assent : in this sense of the word, St. James says, " the devils believe and tremble." The faith intended in the text is far more than an acknowledgment of the truth of the Gospel ; it is an approbation of it as excellent, and an accept- ance of it as suitable. Assent is an act of the under- standing only : but true faith is a consent of the will also, with the full concurrence of our warmest affections : it is called in one place a " believing with the heart ;" and in another, a " believing with all the heart." In few words, faith is a new and living principle, whereby we are enabled to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all the ends and purposes for which he came into the world ; a principle, which, at the same time that it takes us off from all self- dependence, leads us to purify our hearts from the love and practice of all sin. To such faith as this our Lord frequently annexes a promise of eternal salvation : in his discourse with Nicodemus he says, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that who- soever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned ; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he