9. And they said, Stand back. That Lot, with all his entreaties, than which nothing could be adduced more likely to soothe their rage, was thus harshly repelled, shows the indomitable haughtiness of this people. And, in the first place, they threaten that, if he persists in interceding, they will deal worse with him than with those whom he defends. Then they reproach him with the fact, that he, a foreigner, assumes the province of a judge. Every word proves the pride with which they swell. They place one man in opposition to a multitude, as if they would say, ‘By what right hast thou alone challenge to thyself authority over the whole city?’ They next boast that, while they are natives, he is but a stranger. Such is, at the present time, the boasting of the Papists against the pious ministers of God’s word: they allege against us, as a disgrace, the paucity of our numbers, in contrast with their own great multitude. (422) Then they pride themselves upon their long succession, and contend that it is intolerable for them to be reproved by new men. (423) But however contumaciously the wicked may strive, rather than submit to reason, let us know that they are exalted only to their own ruin.
(422) “ Car ils objectent comme pour reproche, que nous ne sommes que une pongnee de gens, et qu’eux sont bien en plus grand nombre.” — French Tr
(423) As the Reformation was styled the new religion, so the reformers were stigmatized as new men. — Ed.