Homilies on First Corinthians

^5. “Now all these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

Again he terrifies them speaking of the “ends,” and prepares them to expect things greater than had already taken place. “For that we shall suffer punishment is manifest,” says he, “from what has been said, even to those who disbelieve the statements concerning hell-fire; but that the punishment also will be most severe, is evident, from the more numerous blessings which we have enjoyed, and from the things of which those were but figures. Since, if in the gifts one go beyond the other, it is most evident that so it will be in the punishment likewise.” For this cause he both called them types, and said that they were “written for us” and made mention of an “end” that he might remind them of the consummation of all things. For not such will be the penalties then as to admit of a termination and be done away, but the punishment will be eternal; for even as the punishments in this world are ended with the present life, so those in the next continually remain. But when he said, “the ends of the ages,” he means nothing else than that the fearful judgment is henceforth near at hand.