was once dissolved, because
that natural judgment, as he said, reclaimed thereto.(11) He reproves, I
say, their gross ignorance, because they might have seen and considered
some proof and document thereof in the very order of nature; for albeit
the wheat, or other corn, cast in the earth, appears to die or putrify,
and so to be lost, yet we see that it is not perished, but that it
fructifies according to God's will and ordinance.

Now, if the power of God be so manifest in raising up of the fruits of the
earth, unto which no particular promise is made by God, what shall be his
power and virtue in raising up our bodies, seeing that thereto he is bound
by the solemn promise of Jesus Christ his Eternal Wisdom, and the Verity
itself that cannot lie? Yea, seeing that the members must once communicate
with the glory of the Head, how shall our bodies, which are flesh of his
flesh, and bone of his bones, lie still for ever in corruption, seeing
that our Head, Jesus Christ, is now exalted in his glory? Neither yet is
this power and good-will of God to be restrained unto the last and general
resurrection only, but we ought to consider it in the marvellous
preservation of his church, and in the raising up of the same from the
very bottom of death, when by tyrants it has been oppressed from age to
age.

Now, of the former words of the prophet, we have to gather this comfort;
that if at any time we see the face of the church within this realm so
defaced, as I think it shall be sooner than we look for--when we shall see,
I say, virtue to be despised, vice to be maintained, the verity of God to
be impugned, lies and men's inventions holden in authority--and finally,
when we see the true religion of our God, and the zealous observers of the
same, trodden under the feet of such as in their heart say, that "There is
no God," (Psal. xiv.); let us then call to mind what have been the
wondrous works of our God from the beginning--that it is his proper office
to bring light out of darkness, order out of confusion, life out of death:
and finally, that this is He that calleth things that are not, even as if
they were, as before we have heard. And if in the day of our temptation,
which in my judgment approaches fast, we are thus armed, if our
incredulity cannot utterly be removed, yet shall it so be corrected, that
damnable despair oppress us not. But now let us hear how the prophet
proceeds:--

"Come, thou my people, enter within thy chamber