But my braving against that famous and most necessary distinction, between the elicit and imperate acts of the will, he says was only to hide from the eyes of the reader a tergiversation in not answering this argument of his; ‘he who doth necessitate the will to evil, is the true cause of evil; but God is not the cause of evil; therefore he does not necessitate the will to evil’. This argument is not to be found in this No. XX., to which I here answered; nor had I ever said that the will was compelled. But he, taking all necessitation for compulsion, doth now in this place, from necessitation simply, bring in this inference concerning the cause of evil, and thinks he shall force me to say that God is the cause of sin. I shall say only what is said in the Scripture, _non est malum, quod ego non feci_. I shall say what Micaiah saith to Ahab, (1 Kings xxii. 23): _Behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit into the mouth of all these thy prophets_. I shall say that that is true, which the prophet David saith (2 Sam. xvi. 10): _Let him curse; because the Lord hath said unto him, curse David_. But that which God himself saith of himself (1 Kings xii. 15): _The king hearkened not to the people, for the cause was from the Lord_: I will not say, least the Bishop exclaim against me; but leave it to be interpreted by those that have authority to interpret the Scriptures. I say further, that to cause sin is not always sin, nor can be sin in him that is not subject to some higher power; but to use so unseemly a phrase, as to say that God is the cause of sin, because it soundeth so like to saying that God sinneth, I can never be forced by so weak an argument as this of his. Luther says, _we act necessarily; necessarily by necessity of immutability, not by necessity of constraint_: that is in plain English, necessarily, but not against our wills. Zanchius says, (_Tract. Theol._ cap. VI. Thes. I.): _The freedom of our will doth not consist in this, that there is no necessity of our sinning; but in this, that there is no constraint_. Bucer (_Lib. de Concordia_): _Whereas the Catholics say, man has free will, we must understand it of freedom from constraint, and not freedom from necessity_. Calvin (_Inst._ cap. II. sec. VI.): _And thus shall man be said to have free will, not because he hath equal freedom to do good and evil, but because he does the evil he does, not by constraint, but willingly_. Monsr. du Moulin, in his _Buckler of the Faith_ (art. IX): _The necessity of sinning is not repugnant to the freedom of the will. Witness the devils, who are necessarily wicked, and yet sin freely without constraint._ And the Synod of Dort: _Liberty is not opposite to all kinds of necessity and determination. It is indeed opposite to the necessity of constraint: but standeth well enough with the necessity of infallibility._ I could add more: for all the famous doctors of the Reformed Churches, and with them St. Augustin, are of the same opinion.