Calvin presents human nature as very nearly corrupt, so much so that he saw very few passing through the narrow gate. We tend to forget the apocalyptic nature of much reform thinking at the time. Think of the anabaptists et al. Plague and war and the corruptions in the Church. The Sultan right at the door of Christendom. The Emperor at war with his princes. And, yes, if you look at the behavior of ordinary men. Not a pretty picture, especially as seen through the eyes of a fanatic like Calvin, or one like Loyola. Calvin’s intellect made him indeed more realistic than the duller blades. He seems personally not to have cared a flip about the forms of ecceciology, or even liturgy, and less inclined to iconoclasm. If he was puritan, it was one more like Cotton Mather. But his notions of justice and mercy are too Mohammedan for me.
I believe our Lord stated the very same thing.
Where did he EVER get a crazy idea like that?
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Oh... never mind.