Deus Non Alligatur

There is "one greater than the Temple" (Matt. 12. 6), and greater than the Holy Mysteries. The scholastic axiom Deus non alligatur sacramentis -- "God is not bound to the sacraments" -- may have a Western origin [in St. Thomas Aquinas], but expresses quite well the Eastern mind. What Orthodox would dare to assert that the members of the Society of Friends [i.e., the Quakers, who deny that the sacraments are needed for Christian life] are deprived of the graces that the sacraments represent? The angel went down at regular times into the pool, and whosoever stepped in first after the troubling of the waters was made whole; but our Lord directly healed the paralytic who could not step in (John 5). This does not mean that a man could disregard, or slight, or despise, the channels of grace offered by the Church without endangering his soul. It means that no externals, however useful, are necessary to God, in the absolute sense of this word, and that there is no institution, however sacred, which God cannot dispense with.

-- Moine De L'Eglise D'Orient [A Monk of the Eastern Church]. Orthodox Spirituality: An Outline of the Orthodox Ascetical and Mystical Tradition. Second Edition. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1996, 31-32.