72. Second Memorable Relation:
I once heard a strange murmur at a distance, and following in spirit the direction of the sound I drew nearer. When I came to where it began, behold, it was a crowd of spirits arguing about Imputation and Predestination. They were Dutch and British, with some from other kingdoms intermingled, and these at the end of each argument exclaimed, "Wonderful! wonderful!"
The subject discussed was, "Why does not God impute the merit and righteousness of His Son to every man and all men created by Him and subsequently redeemed? Is He not omnipotent? Can He not, if He will, make archangels of Lucifer, the dragon, and all the goats? Is He not omnipotent? Why does He permit the unrighteousness and impiety of the devil to triumph over the righteousness of His Son, and over the piety of those who worship God? To God what could be easier than to deem all worthy of faith, and thus of salvation? What need of more than a little word to do this? And if He does it not, does He not act contrary to His words, which are that He desires the salvation of all and the death of none? Say, then, from whom and in whom is the cause of the damnation of those who are lost?"
And then a supralpasarian-predestinarian from the Dutch said, "Does not this belong to the good pleasure of the Almighty? Shall the clay complain to the potter that he has made of it a vessel of dishonor?" And another said, "The salvation of everyone is in His hand as a balance in the hand of a weigher."
[2] There stood at the sides those who were simple in faith and upright in heart, and some with inflamed eyes, some who looked stupefied, some as if drunken, and some as if suffocated, muttering to one another, "What are these ravings to us? These men have been made foolish by their faith, which is, that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whom He will and when He will, and sends His Holy Spirit to give assurances of that righteousness; and lest any man should claim for himself the least share in the work of his salvation, he must be altogether like a stone in the matter of justification, and like a stock in things spiritual." And one of these then thrust himself into the crowd, and said in a loud voice, "O madman! you are arguing about goat's hair. You are wholly ignorant that the omnipotent God is order itself; and that the laws of order are numberless, as many as there are truths in the Word; and that God cannot act contrary to these laws, because to act contrary to them would be to act contrary to Himself, and thus not only contrary to righteousness but contrary to His own omnipotence." [3] And seeing on his right, at some distance, the semblance of a sheep, a lamb, and a flying dove, on his left the semblance of a goat, a wolf, and a vulture, -he said, "Do you believe that God by His omnipotence can change that goat into the sheep, that wolf into the lamb, or that vulture into the dove, or the reverse? By no means; for it is contrary to the laws of His order, of which, according to His words not a jot can fall to the ground. How then can He impart the righteousness of His Son's redemption to anyone who resists the laws of His righteousness? How can righteousness itself do what is unrighteous, and predestine anyone to hell, and cast him into a fire, beside which the devil stands with torches in his hand to keep it burning? O madmen! empty in spirit! your faith has led you astray. Is it not in your hands like a snare for catching doves?"
Having heard this, a magician made of that faith a kind of snare, and put it upon a tree, saying, "You shall see me catch that dove."
And presently a hawk flew towards it and thrust its neck into the snare and hung there; while the dove, seeing the hawk, flew away. The bystanders were astonished, and exclaimed, "Even this sport is a display of justice."