The Institution of Christian Religion

No easier is the condemnation of the heart, when it is called guileful and perverse above all thing: but because I study to be short, I will be content with one place alone,¹ but such a one as shall be like a most bright looking glass, wherein we may behold the whole image of our nature.² For the Apostle, when he goeth about to throw down the arrogance of mankind, doth it by these testimonies, That there is not one righteous man, There is not one man that understandeth or that seeketh God,³ All are gone out of the way, they are made unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one: their throat is an open sepulchre,⁴ with their tongues they work deceitfully, the poison of Serpents is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: whose feet are swift to shed blood, in whose ways is sorrow and unhappiness, which have not the fear of God before their eyes: With these thunderbolts he inveigheth, not against certain men, butte against the whole nation of the sons of Adam. Neither declineth he against the corrupt manners of one or two ages, butte accuseth the continual corruption of nature. For his purpose is that place, not simply to chide men, to make them amend, but to teach rather that all men are oppressed with calamity, impossible to be overcome, from which they cannot ⟨p. 18⟩get up again, unless they be plucked out by the mercy of God. And because, that could not be proved unless it had ben by the overthrow and destruction of nature, he brought forth these testimonies whereby is proved that our nature is more than destroyed. Let this therefore remain agreed, that men are such as they be here described, not only by fault of evil custom, but also by corruptness of nature. For otherwise the Apostles argument can not stand, that there is no salvation for man but by the mercy of God, because he is in him self utterly lost and paste hope. I will not here busy my self in proving the applying of these testimonies that no man should think them unfitly used. I will so take them as if they had ben first spoken by Paul, and not taken out of the Prophets. First he taketh away from man righteousness, that is integrity and pureness, and then understanding.