Proverbs 16:18

Pride [goeth] before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Ver. 18. Pride goeth before destruction.] A bulging wall is near a downfall. Swelling is a dangerous symptom in the body; so is pride in the soul. Sequitur superbos ultor a tergo Deus. a Surely, as the swelling of the spleen is dangerous for health, and of the sails for the overbearing of a little vessel, so is the swelling of the heart by pride. Instances hereof we have in history not a few. Pharaoh, Adonibezek, Agag, Haman, Herod, &c. Xerxes, having covered the seas with his ships, and with two millions of men, and passed over into Greece, was afterwards, by a just hand of God upon him for his prodigious pride, forced to flee back in a poor fisher's boat, which, being overburdened, had sunk all, if the Persians, by the casting away of themselves, had not saved the life of their king. b It was a great foretoken of Darius's ruin, when in his proud embassy to Alexander he called himself the king of kings and cousin of the gods; but for Alexander he called him his servant. c The same senators that accompanied proud Sejanus to the senate conducted him the same day to prison; they which sacrificed unto him as to their god, which erst kneeled down to adore him, scoffed at him, seeing him dragged from the temple to the jail - from supreme honour to extreme ignominy. d Sigismund, the young King of Hungary, beholding the greatness of his army, in his great jollity, hearing of the coming of the Turks, proudly said, What need we fear the Turk, who need not at all to fear the falling of the heavens; which, if they should fall, yet were we able, with our spears and halberts, to hold them up from falling upon us? He afterwards shortly received a notable overthrow, lost most of his men, and was himself glad to get over Danube in a little boat to save his life. e What should I speak of Bajazet, the terror of the world, and, as he thought, superior to fortune, yet in an instant, with his state, in one battle, overthrown into the bottom of misery and despair, and that in the midst of his greatest strength? f

a Seneca.

b Herod.

c Quintus Curtius.

d Dio. in Tiberio.

e Turkish History, fol. 208.

f Ibid., 287.