Section CCLXXV

SCHOLION.

What happens not rarely in the astronomical and physical disciplines, namely, that one or another φαινόμενον, phenomenon, can scarcely, or hardly at all, seem capable of being reconciled with a doctrine otherwise certain and ascertained, ought not to be wondered at if the same thing happens more than once also in the treatment of divine matters. And indeed it happens in those things which we profess concerning God one and triune; it happens in those things which pertain to the person of the Only-begotten and his οἰκονομίαν, economy; and it happens in those things which are referred to the sacraments divinely instituted. But what follows on that account? Namely, the law obtains and flourishes, approved no less by the suffrage of the prudent¹ than by the perspicuous judgment of reason—

—that it is not lawful to doubt those things which are certain because the manner does not shine forth by which these things may be brought into harmony and agreement with all the others. The law obtains and flourishes which is formulated by the author of the work On the Calling of All Nations² in these words: “The things which God willed to be hidden are not to be conjectured. But the things which he has made manifest are not to be denied, lest in the former we be found illicitly curious and in the latter damnably ungrateful.” Hence Tertullian says³: “Let curiosity yield to faith; let glory yield to salvation. Certainly, let them either not clamor or be silent against the rule. To know nothing is to know all things.” Finally, the law most similar to this obtains and flourishes, by which it is declared that it ought to be enough for us if we know the ὅτι, the fact that, of things, but not likewise the διότι, the reason why; if we know the τί ἐστι, what a thing is, but not the πῶς, how⁴ the thing is and aptly agrees with the remaining things. Ne sis sapiens יותר nimis, do not be excessively wise, Scripture cries out⁵; for those who are excessively wise have no wisdom, and those who say that they know all things know nothing. He who inscribed this encomium upon the stone of Anaxagoras did not see this⁶:

Ἐνθάδ’ ὁ πλεῖστον ἀληθείας ἐπὶ τέρμα περήσας, Οὐρανίου κόσμου, κεῖται Ἀναξαγόρας.

“Here lies that man to whom the recesses of things lay open, and the secrets of heaven: great Anaxagoras.”

But I judged that these things ought to be recalled briefly for this reason: because I saw well that there would not be lacking those who would attack the demonstrated universal amplitude of restoration by an argument drawn from the fact that there have always been many who closed their final day before they could be aided by the means of restoration—

—And certainly there have always been more than a few infants who experienced the same womb of the mother as the beginning both of life and of death, and who were therefore incapable of having the necessary safeguards of restoration conferred upon them.

I do not deny that the difficulty taken from this fact is not utterly devoid of every appearance of force; I do not deny that there is some weight in it by which the persuasion concerning universal restoration can seem capable of being shaken; and I readily grant that the manner does not immediately occur to the mind by which the bitter death of so many infants, through which the faculty of applying restoration is snatched away, may be reconciled with universal restoration. Nevertheless, I add that it cannot be permitted that on this account a doctrine demonstrated by the authority and suffrage of Christian tradition should be called into question. But by the authority and suffrage of Christian tradition it is established⁷ that the limits of restoration and of transgression are the same, and that the latter is no more marked with the sign and token of complete universality than the former. Therefore, although the manner does not appear by which universal restoration and the premature deaths of so many infants are reconciled, nevertheless it belongs to a prudent and resolute man not to deny what shines forth, but ingenuously to confess what lies hidden; not to deny what is established by the highest authority, but to judge that what Christ answered the Apostles was said to us⁸: οὐχ ὑμῶν ἐστι γνῶναι, “It is not yours to know this.”