Resurrection and Nature

Aspice nunc ad ipsa quoque exempla divinae potestatis. Dies moritur in noctem et tenebris usquequaque sepelitur; funestatur mundi honor, omnis substantia denigratur: sordent silent stupent cuncta: ubique iustitium est, quies rerum: ita lux amissa lugetur. Et tamen rursus cum suo cultu cum dote cum sole eadem et integra et tota universo orbi revivescit, interficiens mortem suam noctem, rescindens sepulturam suam tenebras, heres sibimet existens,  donec et nox revivescat cum suo et illa suggestu. Redaccenduntur enim et stellarum radii quos matutina succensio extinxerat, reducuntur et siderum absentiae quas temporalis distinctio exemerat, redornantur et specula lunae quae menstruus numerus adtriverat. Revolvuntur hiemes et aestates, verna et autumna, cum suis viribus moribus fructibus. Quippe etiam terrae de caelo disciplina est, arbores vestire post spolia, flores denuo colorare, herbas rursus imponere, exhibere eadem quae absumpta sunt semina, nec prius exhibere quam absumpta. Mira ratio: de fraudatrice servatrix, ut reddat intercipit, ut custodiat perdit, interficit ut vivificet, ut integret vitiat, ut etiam ampliet prius decoquit, siquidem et uberiora et cultiora restituit quam exterminavit, re vera fenore interitu et iniuria usura et lucro damno. Semel  dixerim, universa conditio recidiva est: quodcumque conveneris fuit, quodcumque amiseris erit: nihil non iterum est: omnia in statum redeunt cum abscesserint, omnia incipiunt cum desierint:ideo finiuntur ut fiant: nihil deperit nisi in salutem. Totus igitur hic ordo revolubilis rerum testatio est resurrectionis mortuorum:operibus eam praescripsit Deus ante quam litteris, viribus praedicavit ante quam vocibus. Praemisit tibi naturam magistram, submissurus et prophetiam, quo facilius credas prophetiae discipulus ante naturae, quo statim admittas cum audieris quod ubique iam videris, nec dubites Deum carnis etiam resuscitatorem quem omnium noveris restitutorem. Tertullianus, De Resurrectione Carnis

Attend now to those very analogies of the Divine power. Day dies into night and is buried everywhere in darkness, the glory of the world is slain, its entire substance is tarnished, all things become dark, silent, numb, everywhere activity ceases, all is quiet, and so over light's loss there is mourning. But again it revives, with its own splendour, its own glory, is own sun, the same as ever, whole and entire, throughout all the world, slaying its own night of death, tearing away the darkness from its own sepulchre, coming forth the heir of itself, until the night revives, it, too, being accompanied with its own attendants. The rays of the stars are rekindled, which had been quenched by morning's rise, and the different shapes of the stars  return which an interval of time had removed, the mirrors of the moon are readorned which her monthly count had worn away. Winters and summers return, and spring and autumn, with their powers, their ways, their fruits, and since earth is the pupil of heaven trees which had been stripped bare are clothed, flowers are coloured anew, grass is spread again, seed is produced which had been consumed and not produced until consumed. Wondrous method, from a fraudster to a handmaid; that it might restore, it steals away, that it might guard, it destroys, it kills that it might revivify, that it might make whole, it wounds, that it may enlarge, it first decreases, and indeed it gives back what it had destroyed richer and fuller by a privation which is profit, by an injury which is advantage, and by a loss which is gain. In short I say that the instinct of renewal is in everything: whatever you may meet with has already existed, whatever you have lost shall be again, nothing is without reoccurrence. All things return to their former state when they pass away, all things begin after they have ceased, they end that they might be. Nothing perishes unless for salvation. Thus the whole of this revolving order of things witnesses to the resurrection of the dead. In His works God wrote it before He wrote it in letters, He proclaimed it with power before he gave it voice. He first sent nature to you as a teacher, sending prophecy as reinforcement, that you may more easily believe prophecy being nature's pupil and forthwith admit what you hear when you have already seen it everywhere, nor will you doubt that God is the revivier of the flesh whom you have found to be the restorer of all things. Tertullian, On The Resurrection of the Flesh