Amyraut: without providence's restraint every man would be a Nero
Thesis VII. This is the view of Moïse Amyraut in his disputation On free choice. 'In my opinion,' he says, 'if God abandoned all men to their native corruption and withheld all the efficacy of his providence, both the providence at work in moderating the temperament of the body and the providence that exerts itself in each man's mind, ruling or restraining it or spurring it to some kind of pursuit of virtue, there would be no one who would not equal or surpass the Neros, Caligulas and Sardanapaluses, or any others among the most desperate, in injustice, lust, cruelty, avarice and every foulness of vice' (page 173).
Latin
VII. Quae sententia est Mosis Amyraldi disputatione de Libero arbitrio. Mea sententia, inquit, si Deus omnes homines nativae suae corruptioni permitteret, omnemque Providentiae suae efficacitatem sustineret, tum quae versatur in temperamento corporis moderando, tum quae sese exerit in cujusque hominis animo vel regendo, vel coercendo, vel ad virtutis qualecunque studium incitando, nemo esset qui injustitia, libidine, truculentia, avaritia, & omni vitiorum foeditate Nerones, & Caligulas, & Sardanapalos, & quosvis alios e numero desperatissimorum, non aequaret, aut superaret, pag. 173.