73. The next day some of the group who believed in predestination and imputation came to me and said: 'We feel as if we were tipsy, not with wine, but with the way that man talked yesterday. He talked about omnipotence and at the same time about order, drawing the conclusion that just as omnipotence is an attribute of God, so too is order; in fact he asserted that God Himself is order. He said that there are as many laws of order as there are truths in the Word, not merely thousands, but hundreds of millions; and that God is subject to His own laws in this respect, and man to his. What then is God's omnipotence, if it is restricted by laws? For in this way omnipotence loses all absolute power. Does not that give God less power than any king on earth who is a sovereign? He can turn the laws of justice upside down as easily as his hands; he can act with absolute power like Octavius* Augustus, or like Nero. Thinking about omnipotence restricted by laws has made us feel as if we were tipsy, and ready to faint if we do not get immediate help. Our faith has taught us to pray that God the Father should have mercy on us for the sake of His Son; and we believed that He could have mercy on whomever He chose, forgive the sins of any He pleased, and save whom He willed. We did not dare to detract in the slightest from His omnipotence. Therefore we regard confining God in any fetters of His own laws as sacrilege, seeing that it is a contradiction of His omnipotence.'
[2] At the conclusion of this speech we looked at each other, and I saw that they were perplexed. 'I will pray to the Lord,' I said, 'and bring you help from Him by shedding some light on the subject, but for now only by way of examples.'
'Almighty God,' I said, 'created the world out of order in Himself, that is to say, to be subject to the order in which He is present, and in accordance with which He controls it; and He has endowed the universe and every one of its parts with its own order. So man has his order, animals theirs, birds and fishes theirs, worms theirs; every tree, the very grass has its own order. To provide illustrative examples let me briefly suggest the following. The laws of order assigned to man are that he should acquire for himself truths from the Word, and think about them in a natural way, and, so far as he is able, rationally, thus equipping himself with a natural faith. The laws of order on God's side then are that He approaches the man, fills the truths with His Divine light, and so fills man's natural faith, which is merely factual knowledge and strongly held opinion, with the Divine essence. Thus, and only thus, does it become a saving faith.
'It is similar with charity; but let me briefly give some examples. God's laws prevent Him from forgiving anyone's sins, except to the extent that the person in accordance with his laws refrains from committing them. God cannot spiritually regenerate a person, except in so far as the person in accordance with his laws regenerates himself naturally. God is constantly striving to regenerate and so save people, but He cannot achieve this unless the person prepares himself to receive God, and so smooths the way and opens the door to Him. A bridegroom cannot enter the bedroom of a young woman who has not pledged herself to him; she locks the door and keeps the key herself inside. But when she takes the vows of marriage, she gives the bridegroom the key.
[3] 'God could not by His omnipotence have redeemed mankind, except by becoming a man. Nor could He have made His Human Divine, if His Human had not first been like that of a baby, then that of a child, and then formed itself into a container and dwelling into which His Father could enter. He did this by fulfilling everything in the Word, that is to say, all the laws of order it contains; and the more perfectly He did this, the more closely He united Himself with the Father and the Father united Himself with Him. These are merely a few illustrations which are offered, so that you can see that Divine omnipotence is subject to order; and His rule, which is called providence, is in accordance with order. It acts continually and for ever in accordance with the laws of His order; it cannot act contrary to them, nor can it change a tittle of them, because God is order together with all its laws.'
[4] At this speech a brilliance of golden light flooded in through the roof, and turned into cherubs flying through the air. A ruddy glow from them lit up the temples of some people, coming from the back of the head, but not at this stage from the forehead, for they were murmuring: 'We still do not know what omnipotence is.' 'That will be revealed,' I said, 'once what has been said so far has shed on your minds a little illumination.'
*The name of the first of the Roman Emperors before he took the title Augustus.
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