Monologion: Chapter 72/Chapter 73/Chapter 74
MONOLOGION
eternal reward, one who disdains him will suffer under an eternal punishment.
And just as the former will experience immutable plenty, so the latter will experience inconsolable poverty.
Chapter 72 That every human soul is immortal But if the soul is mortal, it need not be the case that one who loves him is eternally happy or one who disdains him miserable. Therefore, whether it loves or disdains him whom it was created to love, it must be immortal. But if there are some rational souls that must be judged neither to love him nor to disdain him, as the souls of infants appear to be, what are we to hold about them? Are they mortal or immortal? Undoubtedly all human souls are of the same nature. Therefore, since it is established that some are immortal, it must be the case that every human soul is immortal.
Chapter 73 That it is either always miserable or at some time truly happy Now since everything that lives is either never or at some time truly secure from all trouble, it must be no less true that every human soul is either always miserable or at some time truly happy.
Chapter 74 That no soul is unjustly deprived of the supreme good, and that it should strive after him with all its might
But I think it is undoubtedly most difficult, if not impossible, for any mortal to be able to comprehend through disputation which souls are to be unhesitatingly judged as so loving him whom they were made for loving that they deserve to enjoy him at some time, and which ones so disdain him that they deserve to be deprived of him for ever, and how or by what merit those who apparently can be said neither to love nor to disdain him are assigned to eternal happiness or misery. Nevertheless, one should hold with absolute certainty that the supremely just and supremely good Creator of things does not unjustly deprive any soul of the good for which it was made, and that every human being ought to strive after that good by loving and desiring him with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind.70
70 Cf. Matthew 22:37:"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."