β) The _fides implicita_ theory is far more plausible, for it postulates no miracles, implicit faith (or _fides in voto_) being independent of the external preaching of the Gospel, just as the baptism of desire (_baptismus in voto_) is independent of the use of water.
Cardinal Gotti regards the first-mentioned of the two theories as safer (_tutior_), but admits that the other is highly probable, because it has the support of St. Thomas.(567) However, a great difficulty remains. Though it may suffice to hold the dogmas of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and _a fortiori_ those of the immortality of the soul and the necessity of grace, with an implicit faith, it is the consentient teaching of Revelation, the Church, and Catholic divines that the two principal truths of religion, _viz._: the existence of God and retribution, must be held _fide explicitâ_ and _necessitate medii_, because a man cannot be converted to God unless He knows Him. But how is he to acquire a knowledge of God? Does this not also necessitate a miracle (_e.g._ the sending of an angel or of a missionary, which we have rejected as improbable)? There can be but one answer to this question. Unaided reason may convince a thoughtful pagan of the existence of God and of divine retribution, and as these two fundamental truths have no doubt penetrated to the farthest corners of the earth also as remnants of primitive revelation, their promulgation may be said to be contained in the traditional instruction which the heathen receive from their forebears. This external factor of Divine Revelation, assisted by interior grace, may engender a supernatural act of faith, which implicitly includes belief in Christ, Baptism, etc., and through which the heathen are eventually cleansed from sin and attain to justification.(568)
Some theologians hold that those to whom the Gospel has never been preached, may be saved by a quasi-faith based on purely natural motives.(569)
For the rest, no one will presume to dictate to Almighty God how and by what means He shall communicate His grace to the heathen. It is enough, and very consoling, too, to know that all men receive sufficient grace to save their souls, and no one is eternally damned except through his own fault.(570)