A Golden Chain

XXXIII.

Besides this, reprobates have some prerogatives of God: ^kas that lie is patient towards them: that before he will destroy them, he useth many means to win them, that they commonly spend all the days of their lives in prosperity: insomuch, that it is said of them in the Psalm:^l that they go in continual prosperity unto their death, and pine not away as the children of God do. ^mBut after a certain time God in his just judgement hardeneth their hearts, blindeth the eyes of their minds, he maketh their heads giddy with a spiritual drunkenness, & by the strength of their inward lusts, as also by the effectual operation of Satan, they fall to open infidelity, & contempt of Gods word, and so run headlong to their own damnation, and perish finally. And in this they are like to hawks, which so long as they live are carried on the hands of noble men: but when they are dead, they are cast on the dunghill. ⁿJulian the Apostate was first a ⟨p. 582⟩man learned and eloquent, and professed the religion of Christ; but afterward, he fell and wrote a book against the religion of Christ, answered by Cyril: & on a time, in a battle against the Persians, was thrust into the bowels with a dart, no man then knew how, which dart he pulled out with his own hand, & presently blood followed, which as it gushed out, he took it in his hand, and flung it into the air, saying, Vicisti Galilee, vicisti. O thou Galilean (meaning Christ) thou art the conqueror: thou art the conqueror: thus he ended his days in blaspheming Christ whom he had professed. The reason of this apostasy is evident.