3. God is not under any binding law given to him by some other, for then he should cease to be supream, independent and omnipotent: Now to whom there is no law given to observe, there can be no transgression, for the Apostle saith, where there is no law, there is no transgression; and therefore it is simply impossible that God should be the author, or causer of sin, or evil, because there is no law that he can transgress against.
Argum. 4.
De Civitat. Dei, l. 2. c. 7.
4. God prohibiteth and hateth sin, as the Scriptures do every where testifie, but God is the cause of nothing but that which he loveth, and therefore cannot be the cause of the evil of sin. And to speak properly sin hath no efficient cause, but a deficient, such as is the will of faln Angels, and wicked Men, whose irregularity of will, from the command of God, is all the cause that sin and evil hath or can have. An efficient cause is only of those things that are good, because every efficient cause doth by working put something in being: But privations (of which sort are sins) do put nothing in being, but do truly note the absence of beings. Therefore did S. Augustine say well: Mali causa efficiens nulla est, sed tantùm deficiens.
Argum. 5.
Gen. 1. 3.
John 8. 44.
1 John 3. 8.
5. That which properly hath an efficient cause, hath also an end properly so called: But sin hath not an end properly so called, because the end is being, and therefore good, and the perfection of the thing. But the Scripture doth declare that all things that God created were exceeding good; and that the cause of sin was Man, and the Devil; for the text saith, that the Devil was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth: And again, He that committeth sin, is of the Devil, for the Devil sinneth from the beginning. Therefore from hence it is clear, that God neither is nor can be the author or causer of sin.
Argum. 6.