Question Nine
Why the punishment of the damned always grows and is increased
It must be doubted why the punishment of the damned grows through their demeriting until the day of judgment, since they blaspheme out of impatience with their punishments, although, with respect to merit or demerit, they belong to the same state, way, and time as the souls being purged, which can merit or demerit no further either before or after the judgment.
To this it is answered as follows. This proceeds from the hidden disposition and right judgment of divine wisdom. Because the souls being purged tolerate their punishments with thanksgiving, divine wisdom assists their state so that they cannot demerit further or contract fault from any source.
The damned, however, and the souls terribly agitated by the punishments of hell, all hope of liberation having been taken away, restrain themselves by no natural virtue or equity. Blaspheming God incessantly, they perhaps merit that their punishments be increased intensively, at least until the day of judgment, so that those who are in filth may become filthy still.
What happens after the judgment, however, God knows and the human being does not know.
These things are from Henry of Hesse.
But Thomas, in Book IV, distinction 50, question 6, says in the body of the question:
Some say that before the day of judgment both the blessed merit and the damned demerit. But this cannot be with respect to the essential reward or the principal punishment, since with respect to these both parties have arrived at the terminus. It can, however, be with respect to an accidental reward or a secondary punishment, which can be increased until the day of judgment. This occurs especially in demons or good angels, by whose ministry certain persons are drawn to salvation, from which the joy of the good angels grows, or to damnation, from which the punishment of demons grows.
And immediately afterward, in replying to the first argument, he adds:
The souls of the damned, however, cannot demerit in any manner, because to have arrived at the summit of evils is the supreme disadvantage for them. Nor does it belong to the office of damned human beings to draw others toward damnation, as it belongs to the office of demons, by reason of which demons demerit with respect to secondary punishment.
These things are from Thomas in the place cited above.