One Order Shows One Ruler

Since, then, there is everywhere not disorder but order, proportion and not disproportion, not disarray but arrangement, and that in a perfectly harmonious order, we must infer and be led to perceive the Master who put all things together, fitted them to one another, and produced harmony among them. For though he is not seen with the eyes, it is possible, from the order and harmony of things that are contrary, to perceive their Ruler, Arranger and King.

Suppose we saw a city made up of many different people, great and small, rich and poor, old and young, male and female, in good order. Its inhabitants differ from one another and yet are united among themselves. The rich are not set against the poor, the great against the small, nor the young against the old, but all are at peace, enjoying equal rights. If we saw this, the conclusion would surely follow that the presence of a ruler is enforcing harmony, even if we do not see him. For disorder is a sign that there is no rule, while order shows a governing authority. When we see the members of the body in harmony with one another, the eye not striving with the hearing, nor the hand at odds with the foot, but each doing its service without quarrel, we perceive from this that there is certainly a soul in the body governing these members, though we do not see it. So in the order and harmony of the universe we must perceive God, the governor of it all, and perceive that he is one and not many.

So, then, this ordered arrangement and the harmonious agreement of all things show that the Word, its Ruler and Governor, is not many but One. For if there were more than one ruler of creation, such a universal order would not be kept. Everything would fall into confusion because of their number, each one pulling the whole toward his own will and striving with the other. Just as we said that polytheism is atheism, so it follows that the rule of many is the rule of none. For each would cancel the rule of the other, none would appear as ruler, and there would be anarchy everywhere. And where there is no ruler, disorder naturally follows.

And conversely, the single order and harmony of things many and different shows that the ruler too is one. Suppose someone heard from a distance a lyre made of many different strings, and marveled at the harmony of its music, because its sound was made neither of low notes only, nor of high or middle notes only, but all sounded together in equal balance. He would not fail to perceive from this that the lyre was not playing itself, nor even being struck by more than one person, but that there was one musician, even if he did not see him, who by his skill combined the sound of each string into one tuneful harmony. So too, since the order of the whole universe is perfectly harmonious, with no strife of the higher against the lower or the lower against the higher, but all things making up one order, it is consistent to think that the Ruler and King of all creation is one and not many, and that he by his own light gives light and movement to all things.