Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/69

 I feel a firm confidence that God will not permit them to succeed. They wanted to entwine the simple bird in the snare of citations and anathemas; and they have already set their ambush even for some of you. But if that bird, which is a mere domestic fowl, whose flight is circumscribed, and far from lofty, has broken through their nets, how much more will other birds, that soar aloft as they announce the Word of God, despise such ineffectual wiles. They have thrown their nets, and displayed their anathemas, like the image of a bird of prey, to cast terror all around; they have flung about their fiery darts from the quiver of antichrist, in order to prohibit the Word of God and His worship; but the more they strove to disguise their real nature, the more they rendered it visible; and in seeking to stretch forth their traditions like nets, they broke them to pieces; in their anxiety to gain the peace of the world, they destroyed not only it, but, at the same time, the spiritual peace; and in their attempts to injure others, they wounded themselves most.

What happened to the priests of the Jews has befallen them; for they have lost that which they were endeavouring to retain, and have fallen into what they were striving to avoid. They hoped to succeed in stifling and putting down the truth, which always conquers; and they