Verse 20: 'All his days the impious man is proud.' 42. The elect end life in humility, the reprobate in pride. — Even the elect are wont in certain of their thoughts and acts to be proud. But because they are elect, they cannot be proud all their days, because before they end their life, they change their hearts from exaltation to the fear of humility. But the impious man is proud all his days, because he so ends his life that he in no way departs from exaltation. He looks around at what flourishes temporally, and neglects to consider whither he is led for eternity. He puts his trust in the life of the flesh, and reckons that those things will long remain which he holds for the present. His mind is made solid in exaltation, every neighbour is brought into contempt;
he never considers how suddenly death may steal upon him; he never weighs how uncertain his felicity is. For if he beheld the uncertainty of fleeting life, he would by no means hold the uncertain for the certain. Whence also it is well subjoined: