Chapter I.
On judgment in general.
After some things have been briefly said about the Trinity of God, the creation of the world, the corruption of sin, the incarnation of the Word, the grace of the Holy Spirit, and sacramental medicine: it now remains, in the seventh and last place, to briefly touch upon the state of the final judgment. Concerning which, in summary, it must be held that without doubt a judgment of all is to come, in which God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead, the good and the evil, rendering to each according to the requirement of their merits.
In this judgment, moreover, there will be an opening of the books, namely of consciences, by which the merits and demerits of all will become known both to themselves and to others, this being accomplished by the power of that book of life, namely the incarnate Word; who in the form of Divinity will be seen only by the good, but in the form of humanity, in which he will also promulgate the sentence, will be seen by the good as well as by the evil, although in that same form he will appear terrible to the reprobate and gentle to the just.
Now the reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: since the first principle, by the very fact that it is first, is from itself, according to itself, and for the sake of itself, by this very fact it is the efficient cause, the exemplar, and the end, producing, governing, and perfecting all things: so that, just as it produces according to the height of its power, so also it governs according to the rectitude of truth and consummates according to the fullness of goodness. Since, therefore, the height of the supreme power required that there be not only the production of a creature unto a vestige, but also unto an image; not only of an irrational creature, but also of a rational one; not only of a creature that is moved according to natural impulse, but also according to freedom of the will; and since the creature that is unto the image, because it is capable of God, is beatifiable; the rational creature is teachable; the creature having freedom of the will is, according to the law of justice, orderable and disorderable: hence it is that the rectitude of truth had to impose a law upon man, in which it would invite him to beatitude, instruct him in truth, and bind him to justice: yet in such a way that it would not compel the freedom of the will, so that he could, at the pleasure of his own will, abandon or follow justice, since "he so administers the things he has created as to allow them to carry out their own movements." And because the fullness of goodness works in consummating according to what the height of power and the rectitude of truth require: hence it is that the consummation of beatitude is not given by the supreme goodness except to those who have kept the justice imposed by the rectitude of truth, who have received discipline, and who have loved that supreme and perpetual happiness more than transitory goods.
And since some do this while others do the opposite, according to the variety of their wills, which are hidden within and in the state of the wayfaring life proceed according to their own choice, hence it is that for the manifestation of the height of power, the rectitude of truth, and the plenitude of goodness, it is necessary that a universal judgment follow, in which there may be just retributions of rewards, open declarations of merits, and irrevocable pronouncements of sentences, so that in the just retributions of recompenses the plenitude of supreme goodness may appear, in the open declarations of merits the rectitude of truth may appear, and in the irrevocable pronouncements of sentences the height of supreme power and authority may appear.
First, therefore, since just retribution regards fault, to which punishment is owed, or justice, to which glory is owed, and all the children of Adam have either the one or the other, hence it is necessary that by the judgment of retribution all be judged, so that the just may be glorified and the impious condemned.
Again, because the open declaration of merits requires that there appear simultaneously what ought to have been done and what was done or omitted by the freedom of the human will according to the variety of circumstances, hence it is that both the books of consciences will be opened, so that merits may appear, and the book of life, so that justice itself may appear, according to which those merits are to be approved or rejected. And since that book of life is the book in which all things are written simultaneously and most lucidly, and in consciences they are written truthfully, therefore from the concurrence of the opening of these books there will be an open declaration of all merits, so that the hidden things of each one's heart may become known both to himself and to all others. Whence, as Augustine holds, that book is "a power by which it will come about that all things are wondrously recalled to the memory of each one," so that the equity of the divine judgments may lucidly appear in the most open light of truth.
Finally, because the irrevocable pronouncement of sentences must be made by one who can be heard and seen, and from whom there can be no appeal, and the supreme light, which darkened eyes cannot see, cannot be seen by all, because it cannot be seen face to face without deiformity of mind and joy of heart, it is necessary that the judge appear in the likeness of a creature. But because a mere creature does not have supreme authority, from which there can be no appeal, hence it is necessary that our judge be both God, so that he may judge by supreme authority, and man, so that he may be seen and contend with sinners in a human likeness. And because one and the same voice of contention terrifies the guilty and reassures the innocent, hence one and the same likeness of his will gladden the just and on the contrary will terrify the impious.