Origen of Alexandria, On First Principles 3
We must now ask whether there was another world before this present one, and if so, whether it was like this one, or slightly different or inferior; or whether there was no world at all, but rather something of the kind we understand the 'end' to be after all things, 'when the kingdom is handed over to God and the Father' (1 Corinthians 15:24) — an end that would nonetheless belong to another world, namely the one after which this world began, the varied fall of intellectual natures having provoked God into this varied and diverse condition of the world.
I think we must similarly inquire whether after this world there will be some cure and correction, harsher and full of pain for those who refused to obey the word of God, but through rational instruction and reasonable training by which those who in the present life have already devoted themselves to these studies and have been made purer in mind have advanced to a richer understanding of truth, and whether the end of all things will follow immediately after this; or whether, for the correction and amendment of those who need such things, another world will come again, either similar to this present one, or better than this one, or even much worse; and whatever kind that world after this one may be, how long it will last, or whether it will exist at all; and whether there will ever be a time when no world exists anywhere, or whether there was ever a time when no world existed at all; or whether there were many worlds or will be many, or whether it might happen that one world is equal and similar to another in every respect and indistinguishable.
Latin
Superest ut post haec requiramus, utrum ante hune mundum, qui nune est, mundus alius fuerit, et si fuit, utrum talis fuerit, qualis iste, qui nune est, an paulo differentior vel inferior; aut omnino non fuerit mundus, sed tale aliquid fuerit, qualem intellegimus illum' post omnia ‘finem’ futurum, ‘cum tradetur regnum deo et patri: qui nihilominus alterius mundi fuerit finis, ilhus scilicet, post quem hic mundus coepit, lapsus autem varius intellectualium naturarum provocaverit deum ad istam variam diversamque mundi conditionem. Sed et illud similiter requirendum puto, utrum post hune mundum curatio aliqua et emendatio futura sit, asperior quidem et doloris plena erga eos, qui verbo dei oboedire noluerunt, per eruditionem vero rationabilemque institutionem, per quam possent ad locupletiorem proficere veritatis intellectum hi, qui in praesenti iam vita in haec se studia dediderunt et mentibus purgatiores effecti, capaces iam hine divinae sapientiae perrexerunt, et si post haec statim finis omnium consequetur; an pro correctione et emendatione eorum, qui talibus indigent, alius rursum mundus erit, vel similis huic, qui nune est, vel hoc melior aut etiam multo deterior; et qualiscumque ille erit post hunc mundus, quamdiu erit, aut si omnino erit; et si erit aliquando cum nullus usquam sit mundus, aut si fuit aliquando cum mundus omnino non fuerit; aut si fuerunt plures vel erunt, aut si accidat aliquando, ut alter alteri aequalis et similis per omnia atque indiscretus eveniat.