The Institution of Christian Religion

So the law is like a certain looking glass wherein we behold,§7 first our weakness, & by that our wickedness, & last of all by them both our accursedness, even as a glass representeth unto us the spots of our face. For when power faileth man to follow righteousness, then must he needs stick fast in the mire of since. And after sin by & by followeth curse. And of how much the greater transgression the law holdeth us guilty and convict, with so much the more grievous judgement it condemneth us.¹ For this purpose maketh the saying of the Apostle, that by the law is the knowledge of sin. For there he speaketh only of the first office of the law, the proof whereof is in sinners not yet regenerate. And like to this are these two sayings, that the law entered that sin might abound, and therefore that it is the ministration of death that worketh wrath and slayeth.² For without doubt so much more groweth iniquity, with how much more understanding of sin the conscience is stricken, because unto breach of law is added obstinacy against the maker of the law. It followeth therefore that the law armeth the wrath of God to the destruction of the sinner, because of it self it can do nothing but accuse, condemn and destroy.³ And as Augustine writeth, if the spirit of grace be absent, the law is present with us, only to this end, to accuse us and kill us. And yet when this is said, neither is the law dishonoured thereby, nor any thing taken from the excellence thereof. Truly, if our will were wholly framed and disposed to the obedience of the law, then plainly the only knowledge of it were sufficient to salvation. But forasmuch as our fleshly and corrupt nature fighteth, as an enemy with the spiritual law of God, and is nothing amended with the discipline thereof, this followeth that the law which was given for salvation, (if it had found fit hearers) turneth to the occasion of sin & death. For sith we are all proved transgressors of it, the more plainly it it openeth the righteousness of God, so much the more on the other side it discloseth our iniquity: the more surely ye it confirmeth the reward of life and salvation laid up for righteousness, so much the more assured it maketh the destruction of the wicked.