Nor does he become the author of sin by his providence, because that lawlessness is nothing except a defect of operation, of which there cannot exist an author or efficient cause, but only a deficient cause, for which reason alone, the author of sin, insofar as it is such, is the creature, by its transgressing of the law.

Although all the power of the creature to act is from the Creator, and there is a providence of God always extended to every creature, and to every action of the creature; yet we judge that the final corruption of the creature, and the sinfulness of the creature’s action, is from the creature, and not from God; and that it is a great sin to say that God is the author of sin (Eccl. 7:29; Hab. 1:13; James 1:13–15: 1 Cor. 14:33; 1 John 2:16).

For besides the fact that God, who is supremely good, can make nothing except what is good, if man had been brought forth depraved and evil, God could have had no sufficiently just cause for punishing that wickedness of which he himself would have been the creator and author.

Of the author of sin, we confess that our Lord God, though He is the creator and sustainer of all creatures, yet He is not the author of sin. It is rather the evil will, both in the Devil and in the godless human, that, when he does not obtain help from the Lord God, turns away from God, as Christ speaks in John 8, “When the Devil speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (v. 44).

It is true that nature has received a mortal wound, but there is a great difference between a wound inflicted from without, and one inherent in our first condition. It is plain that this wound was inflicted by sin; and, therefore, we have no ground of complaint except against ourselves.