Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie
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to him <strong>in</strong> circumstances so solemn, that he returned<br />
<strong>in</strong>to the bosom of the Roman Church, <strong>and</strong> to repair<br />
to the utmost of his power the <strong>in</strong>jury his father had<br />
done the Papal See, he expended 5,000 ducats <strong>in</strong><br />
purchas<strong>in</strong>g copies of his father's Bible, which he<br />
burned publicly <strong>in</strong> the market-place of Vilna. On<br />
the leaves, now s<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> ashes, might be read the<br />
follow<strong>in</strong>g words, addressed <strong>in</strong> the dedication to the<br />
Polish monarch, <strong>and</strong> which we who are able to<br />
compare the <strong>Pol<strong>and</strong></strong> of the n<strong>in</strong>eteenth century with<br />
the <strong>Pol<strong>and</strong></strong> of the sixteenth, can hardly help<br />
regard<strong>in</strong>g as prophetic. "But if your Majesty<br />
(which may God avert) cont<strong>in</strong>u<strong>in</strong>g to be deluded<br />
by this world, unm<strong>in</strong>dful of its vanity, <strong>and</strong> fear<strong>in</strong>g<br />
still some hypocrisy, will persevere <strong>in</strong> that error<br />
which, accord<strong>in</strong>g to the prophecy of Daniel, that<br />
impudent priest, the idol of the Roman temple, has<br />
made abundantly to grow <strong>in</strong> his <strong>in</strong>fected v<strong>in</strong>eyard,<br />
like a true <strong>and</strong> real Antichrist; if your Majesty will<br />
follow to the end that bl<strong>in</strong>d chief of a generation of<br />
vipers, <strong>and</strong> lead us the faithful people of God the<br />
same way, it is to be feared that the Lord may, for<br />
such a rejection of his truth, condemn us all with<br />
your Majesty to shame, humiliation, <strong>and</strong><br />
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