_Saving faith._ “What is _saving_ faith?[308] I dare not say that it is ‘believing heartily’ my sins are forgiven me for Christ’s sake; for, if I live in sin, that belief is a _destructive_ conceit, and not _saving_ faith. Neither dare I say, that ‘saving faith is _only_ a sure trust and confidence that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me;’[309] for, if I did, I should almost damn all mankind for four thousand years. Such definitions of saving faith are, I fear, too _narrow_ to be just, and too _unguarded_ to keep out Solifidianism.[310] To avoid such mistakes; to contradict no Scriptures; to put no black mark of _damnation_ upon any man, that in any nation fears God and works of righteousness; to leave no room for Solifidianism, and to present the reader with a definition of faith adequate to _the everlasting Gospel_, I would choose to say, that justifying or saving faith is _believing_ the saving truth _with the heart unto_ internal, and (as we have opportunity) _unto_ external _righteousness_, according to our light and dispensation. To St. Paul’s words, Rom. x. 10, I add the epithets _internal_ and _external_, in order to exclude, according to 1 John iii. 7, 8, the filthy imputation, under which fallen believers may, if we credit the Antinomians, commit internal and external adultery, mental and bodily murder, without the least reasonable fear of endangering their faith, their interest in God’s favour, and their inamissable title to a throne of glory.” _Faith the gift of God, and the act of man._ “How is faith the gift of God? Some persons think that faith is as much out of our power as the lightning that shoots from a distant cloud; they suppose that God drives sinners to the fountain of Christ’s blood, as irresistibly as the infernal _legion_ drove the herd of swine into the sea of Galilee.” Footnote 308: As usual, these extracts are made from the _original_ edition, and the _italics_ are Fletcher’s own. Footnote 309: In a foot-note, Fletcher remarks, “When the Church of England and Mr. Wesley give us particular definitions of faith, it is plain that they consider it according to the _Christian_ dispensation; the privileges of which must be principally insisted upon among Christians.” Footnote 310: Solifidianism, now a favourite word with Fletcher, is thus defined by him, in his “Fifth Check to Antinomianism:”—“Solifidianism is the doctrine of Solifidians; and the Solifidians are men who, because sinners are justified _sola fide_, ‘by sole faith,’ in the day of conversion, infer, as Mr. Berridge, that ‘believing is the total term of all salvation,’ and conclude, as Mr. Hill, that the doctrine of final justification by the works of faith in the great day is ‘full of rottenness and deadly poison.’ It is a softer word for Antinomianism.” After amply refuting this “_absurd_” idea, Fletcher proceeds:—