CHAPTER 4

That the Only-begotten Son of God must be considered necessarily Anterior to the Whole Universe.

BUT it seemed good to the Father, source of all goodness, that (His) One only-begotten and beloved Son should be the Head of the Creation cf all things begotten, when He (d) was about to create One Universe, like a body one and vast consisting of many limbs and parts. . . . 

And that He should not govern it from above, as merely

  depending on the greater Headship of the Divinity of the Father (for the Head of Christ is the Father), but as leader of and antecedent to all things after Him, being verily all the while the lasting agent of His Father's commands, and of the creation that was yet to be.

And therefore it is we say that He first before all things was made by the Father, as something one in form, the instrument of every existence and nature, alive and living, nay divine, lifegiving and all-wise, begetting good, Choregus of Light, Creator of the Heaven, Architect of the Universe, (150) Maker of Angels, Ruler of Spirits, Instrument of the Salvation of Souls, Source of Growth to bodies, all things foreseeing, guiding, healing, ruling, judging, proclaiming the religion of the Father.