Chapter VI.
On the consequences of the judgment, namely the punishment of hell.
Next we must speak of the consequences of the judgment, which are two, namely the punishment of hell and the glory of heaven.
Concerning the punishment of hell, therefore, this must be held: that the punishment of hell is in a corporeal place below, in which all the reprobate, both men and evil spirits, will be eternally tormented. - They will be tormented, moreover, by the same corporeal fire, which will burn and torment both spirits and bodies - yet it will not consume those bodies, but will always torment them, some more, some less, according to the measure of their merits.
Moreover, to this torment of fire will be joined torment according to all the senses; joined to it will be the punishment of the worm and the deprivation of the vision of God, so that in these punishments there will be variety, and with variety severity, and with severity endlessness, so that for the punishment of the reprobate the smoke of their torments shall ascend forever and ever.
The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: since the first principle, by the very fact that it is first, is supreme, whatever it has it has in the highest degree; therefore it is necessary that it be most righteous. Since therefore in rendering retribution it acts according to righteousness - just as it cannot act against itself, nor deny itself, nor assail its own justice - so necessarily, its righteousness requiring it, sin must be punished according to the magnitude of the fault, especially in those who, despising the law of mercy, have through impenitence struck against the severity of justice. Since therefore it belongs to the severity of justice to consider fault not only with respect to the root, but also with respect to the aggravating circumstances, it is most fitting that the just judge exact the due punishments from the impious down to the last farthing, so that "the disgrace of sin may not remain without the beauty of justice"; and just as power is manifest in creating and wisdom in governing and clemency in restoring, so may supreme justice be made manifest in punishing. Since therefore divine justice must punish the impious sinner according to the measure of his fault, and mortal fault, upon which final impenitence follows, has the character of a perpetual disordering, a concupiscent disordering, and a manifold disordering, it is necessary that it be punished with the eternity, severity, and multiformity of punishments.
First, therefore, the punishment for perpetual disorder must be perpetual, because the sin which one commits and for which one never repents endures perpetually in the soul and separates from perpetual life, namely God, and proceeds from a will that would wish to delight perpetually in sin. And although that passing delight is momentary, yet because the disorder holds the character of perpetuity, the punishment corresponding to the disorder must have no end; so that, just as man in his own perpetuity set no end by withdrawing from sin, so God in His own perpetuity does not cease from punishing; and just as he sinned against the Infinite, so let him have infinite punishment: and because he cannot have punishment infinite in intensity, let him have it at least in duration: and just as his will after death always clings to evil without the reception of repentance, so let God always afflict without change of sentence, this being required by the perpetuity of disorder in the impious who are damned.
Again, since the punishment for lustful disorder must be afflictive, because delight is punished through contrary sorrow: and the rational spirit in sinning turns itself to its own good and to what is present and partial, loving it lustfully, and from this despises the divine command and dominion: hence it is that, in order that that wicked delight be perfectly punished, in which there is simultaneously delight with contempt, it is necessary that for the punishment of that contempt and delight the sinner, whether man or spirit, be cast down into the lowest place and most distant from the state of glory, that is, into the deepest hell.
It is also necessary that the one to be afflicted there be exposed to the lowest nature, and thereby suffer not from a spiritual substance, but from a corporeal and lowest one, that is, from the dregs of worldly bodies, so that he may be fixed in the dregs and burned with fire and brimstone. And since the spirit, which by nature is set over the body and has the power to influence and move it, has perverted the dignity of nature through fault and subjected itself in a certain way to the vileness and nothingness of sin: hence it is that according to the order of justice it must be ordained that both the sinning spirit and man be bound to corporeal fire, not so as to flow life into it, but so as to receive punishment by divine decree. For since he is inseparably bound to a thing which he dreads through divinely sent fear and which he perceives through the power of natural sensation: it is necessary that he be sharply tormented. - And because that fire acts only according to the disposition of sin and guilt and stain proceeding from the wickedness of desire, and this is not equal in all: hence it is that by the same fire some are burned more and others less, just as by the same fire straw is burned in one way and wood is consumed in another. - Moreover, since that distinction of sin and guilt according to which the action of fire is moderated is uniform in the same person and never increases nor decreases nor changes: hence it is that by divine command ordaining, it so acts that it always burns and does not consume, always afflicts and does not destroy, because it does not act toward the multiplication of its own form, but toward the disturbance of the peace of the soul in the body, or of the spirit in itself. Whence there is no new deprivation, but a continuation of the peace already taken away: so that in the same punishment neither does the bitterness remove the eternity, nor does the eternity remove the bitterness.
Finally, since the punishment of manifold disorder must be manifold: and in every actual mortal sin there is a disordered aversion from the highest light and goodness, and an inordinate conversion to a changeable good, and a disorder of the will against the dictate of right reason: hence it is that all who actually sin and will be damned shall be punished with a threefold punishment: on account of their aversion, the deprivation of the vision of God; on account of their conversion, the punishment of material fire; on account of the conflict between will and reason, the punishment of the worm: so that thus afflicted by this multiplicity of punishments they may be tormented both variously and bitterly and eternally, and the smoke of their torments may ascend forever and ever. Amen.