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Now as for the explication thereof, its sense is very plain and obvious, viz. that at the end. of the world our Lord Jesus Christ shall come from heaven to judge according to their works, all mankind, both the quick and the dead; which latter words I shall a little more ex-: plain, because there was some difference in: the notions of the ancients concerning them, which it may not be unnecessary to mention,

Isidore the Pelusiote, reckons up three ex-> plications of this phrase; the first whereof is, "that by the quick and the dead, may be understood the bodies and souls of men, that one shall not be separated from another, but as: they have behaved themselves alike here, so they shall receive an equal reward hereafter:"? according unto which interpretation Ruffinus also writes, "that by the quick may be un derstood souls, and by the dead bodies."

The second is " that by the quick and dead, t are meant the good aud bad;" which opinionis not condemned, but judged probable both by St. Austin and Gennadius Massiliensis ; the latter of whom informs us that Diodorus? bishop of Tarsus, who flourished about the year 380, attributed this sense unto it," that by the quick and dead, are signified the God ly and ungodly."

But the third interpretation is the most nat ural and genuine," that by the quick, are meant those who shall be alive at the coming

of our Lord, and by the dead, those who shall be then void of life, and must then be raised to be brought to judgment;" which explica tion is followed by Augustin, Gennadius Mas siliensis, and others.

So that taking in these three explications of the quick and the dead, the meaning of this article is no other than this, that all mankind in soul and body, both good and bad, the dead as well as those then living, shall appear at the last day before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, to receive from him according to what they respectively did in the flesh.

Now as for the occasion of the inserting this article in the creed, or the reason or cause of it, I apprehend it to have been two-fold; that it was designed to be an antidote against two sorts of most pestilent heretics, viz. the Marcionites and the Gnostics; the former of whom blasphemed the Judge, and the other subverted the Judgment: against whom it ismost pertinently repeated in the creed, that Jesus Christ himself shall come to judge the world, that is, to dispense rewards and punishment to every man according to his works,

As for Marcion and his followers, they together with their master Cerdon, imagined two Gods," the one an unknown, good, and merciful God, the other a just and severe God, the maker and creator of the world; the former, or the good God, they affirmed to be the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that both he and his son were nothing else but pity, grace and love; that the son's design in coming into the world, was only to save those from the severity of the maker of the world who should fly unto him; but as for others, though they should be the most flagitious and abominable sinners, yet he would never condemn or punish them: which monstrous and horrid tenet, opens a flood-gate to all licentiousness and impiety; for if God be only good, and not also just, who will ever obey his commandments, and especially such of them as are contrary to men's sensual inclinations and carnal interests? If there be no fear of a future punishment, the sensualists and voluptuous are without contradiction the wisest and most prudent men; and it would be a most unaccountable folly to mortify the flesh, to renounce the world, yea, and to deny interest, life, and all, to serve and obey that God, who is not at all displeased with any of our disobedient actions; and being not dis

pleased, will never punish us, though we free. ly plunge ourselves in all sorts of debaucheries and impurities: on which account, in a just detestation of this impious doctrine Tertullian elegantly cries out, "hear this, all ye sinners, and ye who are not so yet, that ye may be so such a kind God is found, who is neither of fended nor angry, nor revengeth, who hath no fire burning in hell, nor gnashing of teeth in utter darkness; he is altogether good, he prohibits sin in words only; it is at your plea sure, whether you will obey him or no; for, he doth not desire to be feared by you."

Wherefore, in contradiction to this destructive tenet of all religion and piety, the rule of faith declares, that God is not only good, but that he is also just; that he is a judge as well as a Saviour; that he and his son are justice and equity, as well as grace and mercy; that Christ Jesus did not only die and rise again for the good and weal of mankind, but that he will al so come to judge the quick and the dead, to examine, into all men's carriages and behaviour's, and to reward them suitably thereunto; not only to give [Rom. ii. 8, 9.]" glory and honor, immortality and eternal life to the peni tent and believing, but also to render indig nation and wrath, tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that doth evil."

Now that this was the reason for which the name or person of the supreme or final judge is mentioned in the creed, seems very proba ble from the frequent use which the fathers make of this argument of Christ's coming to judge the world, to prove that God is just and righteous as well as kind and good, as may be seen in the writings of Tertullian, Irenæus, and others: And it appears to be more evident from the third book of Irenæus, which is chiefly levelled against the Marcionites; in the beginning whereof, after an account given of Polycarp's reception of Marcion at Smyrna, calling him the first-born of Satan, and of the care taken by the apostles and apostolic men, to preserve the faith of the gospel pure and entire from all manner of heresies whatsoever, he proceeds to repeat the Catholic creed, wherein this article is expressed with this circumlocution, "that he shall come to be the Saviour of those who are saved, and to be the judge of those who are judged, sending into eternal fire the corrupters of the truth, and the despisers of his father and of his coming;" which, on the same account is mentioned by Tertullian in terms not much unlike, viz." that he shall come in brightness to receive the saints into the fruit of eternal life, and to adjudge the profane to everlasting fire;' in which two creeds, the actions of the judge