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. [Sidenote: _Argum. 4._] [Sidenote: _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_. [Sidenote: _Argum. 5._] [Sidenote: Gen. 1. 3.] [Sidenote: John 8. 44.] [Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote: _Argum. 6._] [Sidenote: _Vid. Schar. de miser. hom. stat. sub peccato_, _c._ 3.] [Sidenote: _Fulgent._ _lib._ 1. _ad Monim_] 6. That which God is the author of, doth not make Man worse. but sin doth make Man worse, therefore God is not the author of it. And all sin is perpetrated, because thereby it receeded from the order that respecteth God, as the ultimate end of all things; but God doth incline all things unto himself, as to the ultimate end, neither doth he turn them from himself, because he is _summum bonum_. And further as _Fulgentius_ saith: _Deus non est ejus rei autor, cujus est ultor. At Deus est peccati ultor, ergo non autor._ And therefore we conclude, that this is a vain pretence of an absurdity, because it is impossible that God should be the author or causer of sin. [Sidenote: Job 13. 7.]