There was a time when there was nothing, but "nothing" was not anything existent.  Simply and plainly, without any sophistry, there was absolutely nothing. When I say "was," I do not mean that anything "was," but I say it in order to signify what I want to show - I mean that there was absolutely nothing.  What is called by a name is not absolutely ineffable; we may, however, call it infeffable, but it is not ineffable, for the truly ineffable is not ineffable but "above every name which is named" (Ephesians 1:21). Names are not sufficient for designating all the objects in the world, because they are innumerable; names are inadequate. I do not undertake to find proper names for all. Instead, by understanding without speech one must receive the properties of the things named. Homonyms have produced trouble and error for those who hear.  Since, then, there was nothing - no matter, no substance, no nonsubstance, nothing simple, nothing complex, nothing not understood, nothing not sensed, no man, no angel, no god, not anything that is named or perceived through anything which can be defined more subtly than anything else  - the nonexistent God wished, without intelligence, without sense, without will, without choice, without passion, without desre, to make a Universe (gr. Kosmos). I say that he "wished" for the sake of saying something, but it was actually also without wish, without intelligence, without sense ; and I say "universe" in reference not to the one with breadth and divisibility which came into existence later and continued to exist, but to the seed of that universe. The seed of the universe had everything within it, just as the grain of mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32), collecting everything in the smallest space, contains it
all together - roots, stem, branches, innumerable leaves, seeds of the grains generated from the plants, and seeds of still other plants, when they are scattered.  Thus the nonexistant God made a nonexistent universe out of the nonexistent, establishing
and gving substance to one certain seed which had within it the whole semination of the universe. It is like the egg of some variegated and many-colored bird, such as the peacock or some other bird, an egg which though one has within it many forms of multiform, many-colored, many-constituted substances. Thus the non-existent seed , established by the nonexistent God as the semination of the universe, was at the same time polymorphous and many-substanced.

2. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 4.81.2-4.83.2

{Basilides, in Book 23 of his "Commentaries," speaks of those who suffer punishment as martyrs, with the following words:} I believe that all who experience the so-called tribulations must have committed sins other than what they realize, and so have been brought to this good end. Through the kindness of that which leads each one of them about, they are actually accused of an extraneous set of charges so they might not have to suffer as confessed criminals convicted of crimes, nor be reviles as adulterers or murderers, but rather might suffer because they are disposed by nature to be Christian. And this encourages them to think that they are not suffering. But even if a person should happen to suffer without having sinned at all - which is rare - still, that person's suffering is not caused by the plotting of some power. Rather, it is analogous to the suffering of a new-born baby, who seems not to have sinned.

{Then, further along, he adds:} A new-born baby, then, has never sinned before; or more precisely it has not actually committed any sins, but within itself it has the activity of sinning. Whenever it experiences suffering, it receives benefit, profitting by many unpleasant experiences. Just so, if by chance a grown man has not sinned by deed and yet suffers, he suffered the suffering for the same reason as the new-born baby: he has within him sinfulness, and the only reason he has not sinned (in deed) is because he has not had the occasion to do so. Thus not sinning cannot be imputed to him. Indeed, someone who intends to commit adultery is an adulterer even without succeeding in the act, and someone who intends to commit murder is a murderer even without being able to commit the act. Just so, if I see the aforementioned sinless person suffering despite having done no wrong, I must call that person evil by intent to sin. For I will say anything rather than call providence evil. {Then, farther along, he speaks of the Lord outright as of a human being:

Nevertheless, let us suppose that you leave aside all these matters and set out to embarrass me by referring to certain figures, saying perhaps, "And consequently so-and-so must have sinned, since he suffered!" If you permit, I shall say that he did not sin, but was like the new-born baby that suffers. But if you press the argument, I shall say that any human being that you can name is human; God is righteous. For no one is pure of uncleanness, as someone once said. {Actually, Basilides' presupposition is that the soul previously sinned in another life and undergoes its punishment in the present one. Excellent souls are punished honorably, by martyrdom; other kinds are purified by some other appropriate punishment.

3. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 4.86.1

We assume that one part of the so-called will of God is to love all; a second is to desire nothing; and a third is to hate nothing.

4. Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 1015B

Indeed, the Apostle (Paul) has said, "I was once alive apart from the law," [Rom 7:9] at some time or other. That is (Paul means), before I came into this body, I lived in the kind of body that is not subject to the law: the body of a domestic animal or a bird.

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