Chapter 173 — That man’s reward or misery comes after this life

In this matter we should note that contrary causes beget contrary effects. Thus action that proceeds from malice is contrary to action that proceeds from virtue. Accordingly, the wretchedness at which evil action arrives is the opposite of the happiness that virtuous action merits. Now, contraries belong to the same genus. Therefore, since ultimate happiness, which is reached by virtuous action, is a good that belongs not to this life but to the next life, as is clear from what was said above, consequently ultimate misery also, to which vice leads, must be an evil after this life.

Besides, all goods and ills of this life are found to be ordered to something else. For external goods and even bodily goods are organically subservient to virtue, which is the direct path to beatitude for those who use such goods well. And for those who use these goods ill, they are instruments of vice, which leads to misery. Similarly, the ills opposed to such goods, such as sickness, poverty, and the like, are an occasion of progress in virtue for some but aggravate the viciousness of others, according as men use them in different ways. But what is ordered to something else cannot be the ultimate reward or punishment. Therefore, neither ultimate happiness nor ultimate misery consists in the goods or ills of this life.

Damnation