52. (ii) THE OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD CANNOT BE RECOGNISED EXCEPT THROUGH A KNOWLEDGE OF ORDER, AND THESE FACTS ABOUT ORDER: THAT GOD IS ORDER, AND THAT HE INTRODUCED ORDER INTO THE UNIVERSE AND ALL ITS PARTS SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH ITS CREATION.

To grasp the number and nature of the absurdities which have crept into human minds and thus into the church through the heads of its founders as the result of their failure to understand the order with which God on its creation endowed the universe and everyone of its parts, it will not be necessary to do more than to list them in the following pages. But first of all I shall here set forth a general definition of what I mean by order, namely: order is the quality of arrangement, direction and activation of the parts, substances and entities composing a form; this is the origin of its state, and perfection of state is the product of wisdom from its love, and its imperfection is hammered out by insanity of reason from lust. This definition uses the terms substance, form and state; and by substance I understand at the same time form, because all substance is a form, and the quality of a form is its state; the perfection or imperfection of its state is the result of order. These, being metaphysical terms, must inevitably be very obscure; but in the following pages this obscurity will be dispelled by the application of illustrative examples.

6179. 'Put now your hand under my thigh' means a sacred bond. This is clear from the meaning of 'putting a hand under the thigh' as a bond established through what is connected with conjugial love, by all one's power, for 'hand' means power, 878, 3091, 4931-4937, 5728, 5544, and 'thigh' what is connected with conjugial love, dealt with in 3021, 4277, 4280, 4575, 5050, 5062. The conjugial relationship in the supreme sense is the union within the Lord of the Divine and the Divine Human. From this it is the union of Divine Good and Divine Truth in heaven, for what goes forth from the Lord is Divine Truth from Divine Good. This is why heaven is heaven and is called a marriage, for the existence there of goodness and truth joined together, which go forth from the Lord, is what makes heaven. Also, since the Lord is the good there, and heaven is the truth from it, the Lord is in the Word called 'the bridegroom', while heaven and also the Church is called 'the bride'. For goodness and truth constitute a marriage, and the existence of the two joined together is meant by the conjugial relationship. From this one may see how sacred it to be bound by what is of a conjugial nature, meant by 'putting a hand under the thigh'. From that marriage, the marriage of goodness and truth, genuine conjugial love comes down, regarding which love and its holiness, see 2727-2759.