Institutes of the Christian Religion
BOOK III.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE COMMENCEMENT AND CONTINUAL PROGRESS OF JUSTIFICATION.
For the further elucidation of this subject, let us examinewhat kind of righteousness can be found in men during thewhole course of their lives. Let us divide them into fourclasses. For either they are destitute of the knowledge ofGod, and immerged in idolatry; or, having been initiated bythe sacraments, they lead impure lives, denying God in theiractions, while they confess him with their lips, and belong toChrist only in name; or they are hypocrites, concealing theiniquity of their hearts with vain disguises; or, being regeneratedby the Spirit of God, they devote themselves to true holiness.In the first of these classes, judged of according to theirnatural characters, from the crown of the head to the sole ofthe foot there will not be found a single spark of goodness;unless we mean to charge the Scripture with falsehood inthese representations which it gives of all the sons of Adam—that“the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperatelywicked;”[1] that “every imagination of man’s heart is evilfrom his youth;”[2] that “the thoughts of man are vanity;that there is no fear of God before his eyes;”[3] that “thereis none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God;”[4]in a word, “that he is flesh,”[5] a term expressive of allthose works which are enumerated by Paul—“adultery, fornication,4uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,murders,”[6] and every impurity and abomination that can beconceived. This is the dignity, in the confidence of whichthey must glory. But if any among them discover that integrityin