Since, then, there is in the whole not disorder but order, not disproportion but symmetry, not chaos but an ordered world and a perfectly harmonious arrangement of the world, we must reason and form an understanding of the Master who brought these things together, bound them closely, and produces harmony among them. For even though He is not seen by the eyes, from the order and harmony of contrary things one can understand their Ruler, Arranger, and King.
Suppose we saw a city made up of many different people—small and great, rich and poor, old and young, male and female—inhabited in good order. Suppose its inhabitants, though different from one another, lived in harmony: the rich not set against the poor, the great against the small, the young against the old, but all living peacefully on equal terms. If we saw this, we would certainly understand that the presence of a ruler presides over their harmony, even if we did not see him. For disorder is a mark of lack of rule, while order shows that there is one who governs.
In the same way, when we see the harmony of the members of the body with one another—the eye does not fight with the hearing, nor does the hand rebel against the foot, but each performs its own function without conflict—we understand from this that there is certainly a soul in the body that governs them, even though we do not see it.
So too, from the order and harmony of the whole, we must understand God as the Governor of all, and that He is one and not many.
This order in the arrangement of things and the harmony of all things in concord show that its Ruler and Governor, the Word, is one, not many. For if there were many rulers of creation, such order among all things would not be preserved. Everything would again be disordered because of the many, as each drew all things toward his own will and fought against the other.
Just as we said that polytheism is atheism, so the rule of many must be no rule at all. For if each cancels the rule of the other, no ruler remains evident; instead there is lack of rule among all. And where there is no ruler, disorder necessarily follows.
Conversely, the one order and harmony of many different things show that their Ruler also is one.
It is like someone hearing from a distance a lyre composed of many different strings and marveling at the harmony of their concord: the low string does not make the sound alone, nor the high alone, nor the middle alone, but all sound together in balanced relation to one another. From this he certainly understands that the lyre is not moving itself, nor is it being struck by many people. Rather, there is one musician who, by his skill, blends the sound of each string into harmonious concord, even though the listener does not see him.
In the same way, since the order of the whole world is perfectly harmonious, with neither the things above rebelling against those below nor the things below against those above, but all things forming one order, it follows that we should understand one, not many, as the Ruler and King of all creation—the One who by His own light illumines and moves all things.