Niels Hemmingsen with words of encouragement, from his remarks in the Enchiridion theologicum on the clause “from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead” in the Apostles’ Creed:
Translation
This part [of the Creed] is indeed terrifying to the impious and those who are enemies of Christ. But for Christians it is most full of delight, and is as it were a sacred anchor in every distress. For when the pious man, oppressed in this world by various calamities, hears that the Last Judgment has been placed in the care of him who said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; likewise, “He who believes in the Son will not taste death forever”–[when he hears these things,] there is conceived in him hope and trust that he will someday be freed from all distresses with the greatest glory. For how could the most merciful Prince lose his own people? How could the head scatter his members, joined to himself by his own death? How could the Advocate condemn his own clients? How could Jesus not save? How could he who claimed us for himself by his own precious blood, poured out on the gibbet of the cross, now abandon us in our last peril?–since this Christ, our King and High Priest, has promised by oath that he will save all those who flee to him, however monstrous the sins of which they are guilty.1
