So that so great a matter may be understood by an example, let what we are saying be pictured as a great chorus. A chorus is made up of different people—children, women, old men, and those who are still young. When one leader gives the signal, each gives voice according to his own nature and ability: the man as a man, the child as a child, the old man as an old man, and the young man as a young man; yet all together produce one harmony.
Or consider how our soul moves the senses within us at the same time, each according to its own function. When one object is present, all are moved together: the eye sees, the ear hears, the hand touches, the sense of smell perceives, and the palate tastes; and often the other members of the body act as well, so that the feet walk.
Or, to show what we mean by a third example, it is especially like a great city that has been built and is governed in the presence of the ruler and king who also built it. With him present, giving orders, and keeping his eye on everything, all follow his direction: some go to farming; others hurry to the aqueducts to draw water; another goes out to obtain provisions. One goes to the council, another enters the assembly; the judge goes to judge, and the magistrate to make laws. The craftsman immediately turns to his work, the sailor goes down to the sea, the carpenter to his carpentry, the physician to healing, and the builder to his building work. One goes out to the field, another comes back from the field; some move about within the city, while others leave the city and then return to it. All these things happen and hold together through the presence of the one ruler and by his ordering.
In the same way we must think of the whole creation. Even though the example is small, we must understand it with a greater conception. For by a single impulse, as it were, of a nod from the Word of God, all things are ordered together; each performs what is proper to it, and from them all together one order is produced.
So that so great a matter may be understood by an example, let what we are saying be pictured as a great chorus. A chorus is made up of different people—children, women, old men, and those who are still young. When one leader gives the signal, each gives voice according to his own nature and ability: the man as a man, the child as a child, the old man as an old man, and the young man as a young man; yet all together produce one harmony.
Or consider how our soul moves the senses within us at the same time, each according to its own function. When one object is present, all are moved together: the eye sees, the ear hears, the hand touches, the sense of smell perceives, and the palate tastes; and often the other members of the body act as well, so that the feet walk.
Or, to show what we mean by a third example, it is especially like a great city that has been built and is governed in the presence of the ruler and king who also built it. With him present, giving orders, and keeping his eye on everything, all follow his direction: some go to farming; others hurry to the aqueducts to draw water; another goes out to obtain provisions. One goes to the council, another enters the assembly; the judge goes to judge, and the magistrate to make laws. The craftsman immediately turns to his work, the sailor goes down to the sea, the carpenter to his carpentry, the physician to healing, and the builder to his building work. One goes out to the field, another comes back from the field; some move about within the city, while others leave the city and then return to it. All these things happen and hold together through the presence of the one ruler and by his ordering.
In the same way we must think of the whole creation. Even though the example is small, we must understand it with a greater conception. For by a single impulse, as it were, of a nod from the Word of God, all things are ordered together; each performs what is proper to it, and from them all together one order is produced.