Breviloquium

After some brief remarks have been made 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 the medicine of the Sacrament, it remains now, seventh and last, to touch briefly on certain matters concerning the state of the final judgment. Concerning this, it must be held in sum that, without doubt, a judgment of all will take place, in which God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, will judge the living and the dead, the good and the wicked, rendering to each according to the measure of his merits.¹ — In this judgment, moreover, the books—namely, the consciences—will be opened; through them the merits and demerits of all will become known to themselves and to others, by the power of that book of life, namely, the incarnate Word. He will be seen in the form of divinity only by the good; but in the form of humanity, in which he will also pronounce the sentence, he will be seen by both the good and the wicked, although in the same form he will appear terrible to the reprobate and gracious to the just.² The reason for understanding the foregoing is this: since the first principle, by the very fact that it is first, is from itself, according to itself, and for itself, by this very fact it is the efficient, formal, and final cause of all things, producing, governing, and perfecting them; so that, just as it produces according to the height of its power, so it also governs according to the rectitude of truth and brings to consummation according to the fullness of goodness. Since, therefore, the height of the highest power required that there be not only a production of the creature to vestige, but also to image; not only of an irrational creature, but also of a rational one; not only of a creature moved according to natural impulse, but also according to freedom of will; and since the creature that is to image, because capable of God, is capable of beatification, the rational creature is capable of discipline, and the creature possessing freedom of will is capable of being ordered and disordered according to the law of justice: hence the rectitude of truth had to impose a law upon man, by which it would invite him to beatitude, educate him in truth, and bind him to justice; yet in such a way that it would not compel freedom of will, but that, according to the inclination of his will, he could abandon justice, and «thus he administers the things he founded, so that he permits them to enact their proper motions».³⁴ And because the fullness of goodness operates in bringing things to consummation according as the height of power and the rectitude of truth require, hence the consummation of beatitude is not given by the highest goodness except to those who have kept the justice imposed by the rectitude of truth, who have received discipline, and who have loved that highest and perpetual beauty 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 way, proceed according to their own judgment, hence a universal judgment must necessarily follow for the manifestation of the height of power, the rectitude of truth, and the fullness of goodness; in it there will be just retributions of rewards, open declarations of merits, and irrevocable pronouncements of sentences, so that in the just retributions of stipends the fullness of the highest 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 the highest power and authority may appear. — First, therefore, since just retribution concerns guilt, to which punishment is due, or justice, to which glory is due, and all the sons of Adam possess one or the other, all must necessarily be judged in the judgment of retribution, so that the just may be glorified and the wicked condemned.⁵ Again, because an open declaration of merits requires that it appear at once both what is to be done and what has been done or omitted by human freedom of will according to the variety of circumstances, hence 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 because that book of life is a book in which all things are written, all at once and most lucidly, while 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 heart may become known both to that person and to others. Hence, as Augustine holds,⁶ that book is «a power by which it comes about that all things are wondrously recalled to each one's memory», so that the equity of the divine judgments may appear clearly 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 no appeal can be made, while the highest light cannot be seen by all—darkened eyes cannot see it—since it cannot be seen face to face without a mind conformed to God and joy of heart,⁷ it is necessary that the judge appear in the likeness of a creature. But since a pure creature does not possess the highest authority, from which no appeal could be made, hence our judge must both be God, so that he may judge by the highest authority, and man, so that he may be seen and dispute with sinners in human likeness. And because one voice of disputation terrifies the guilty and reassures the innocent, hence one likeness of him will gladden the just and, conversely, frighten the wicked.