the thought of
the Jews, who believed that the nation would not be destroyed because
the promise said: "This is my resting-place forever." God permitted
destruction in order to punish the sins of his people, and yet he
preserved and protected the Church when the pious were brought back by
Cyrus and built the temple.

69. In like manner, dominion over the world was given to man in the
beginning of creation. This is taken away in the flood, not forever,
but for a time, and that not altogether. Though the greater part of
the world perishes, yet man retains his mastery; and this mastery is
preserved to mankind, not as represented by a multitude, as the world
desired and believed, but by a few persons--eight souls--a thing which
seemed incredible to the world.

70. Hence God did not lie; he kept his promise, but not as the world
would have had it. He destroyed the sinners and saved the righteous
few, which, like a seed, he thereafter multiplied in many ways.

71. The Papists should keep before their eyes this judgment of God. It
teaches that neither numbers nor power nor his own promise is allowed
to prevent him from punishing the impenitent. Otherwise he would have
spared the first world and the offspring of the patriarchs to whom he
had granted dominion over the earth. Now he destroys all and saves
only eight.

72. Is it wonderful, then, that he deals with the Papists in the same
way? Though they boast of rank, dignity, numbers, and power, yet,
because they trample the Word of God under foot and rage against it,
God will cast them away, choosing for himself another Church, which
will humbly obey the Word and accept with open arms the gifts of
Christ which the pope's Church, trusting in its own merits, haughtily
spurns.

73. Therefore none should trust in the good things of present
possession, though they be promised by the divine Word. We must look
to the Word itself and trust in it alone. Those who set the Word aside
and put their trust in present things, will not go unscathed in their
fall from faith, however much they may boast of power and numbers.
This truth is shown by the flood, by the captivity of the Jews and
their present misfortune, and by the seven thousand men in the kingdom
of Israel.

74. The proof is sufficiently strong, that great numbers do not make a
Church. Nor must we trust in holiness of origin, in forefathers, or in
the gifts of God which we enjoy. We must look to the Word alone and
judge th