God acted nothing, but only ceased to act, and therefore could not be the efficient cause of man’s sin. As God is not the author of good but by willing and effecting it, so he is not the author of evil but by willing and effecting it. But he doth not positively will evil, nor effect it by any efficacy of his own. Permission is no action, nor the cause of that action which is permitted, but the will of that person who is permitted to do such an action is the cause.

He wills it not by his effective will, but by his permissive will; and therefore cannot be chargeable with being the author of sin; since there is a wide difference between doing it himself, and doing it by others, or ordering it to be done, which only can make him the author of sin; and voluntarily permitting or suffering it to be done by others.

Not by permitting the evil action, because he is bound by no law to hinder sin. Not by determining it; for as he who puts out a fire so that it may not spread further is not the cause of the fire, so he who fixes bounds to sin is not the cause of sin. Not by directing it to a good end; for as it is the highest art to prepare a wholesome medicine from venomous animals, so it is glorious for God to draw light even out of darkness, and something good out of evils.

God leaves the sinner so far as he sees meet to the swing of his own lusts, and denies him restraining grace. … And when the restraint is taken off the sinner, he runs furiously, to evil. 3. God bounds sin, and restrains men in their sins, as he does the raging sea, allowing it to go so far, but no further.

God doth not infuse the lust, or excite it, though he doth present the object about which the lust is exercised. God delivered up Christ to the Jews, he presented him to them, but never commanded them to crucify him, nor infused that malice into them, nor quickened it; but he, seeing such a frame, withdrew his restraining grace, and left them to the conduct of their own vitiated wills. … God created the grape, and filled the vine with a sprightliness, but he doth never infuse a drunken frame into a man, or excite it. … In short, though it be by God's permission that we can do evil, yet it is not by his inspiration that we will to do evil; that is wholly from ourselves.