A careful and strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of…

II. They who object, that this Doctrine makes God the Author of Sin, ought distinctly to explain what they mean by that Phrase, The Author of Sin. I know, the Phrase, as it is commonly used, signifies something very Ill. If by the Author of […] ▪ be meant the Sinner, the Agent, or Actor of Sin, or the Do•r of a wicked Thing; so it would be a Reproach and Blasphemy, to suppose God to be the Author of Sin. In this Sense, I utterly deny God to be the Author of Sin; rejecting such an Imputation on the most High, as what is infinitely to be abhorred; and deny any such Thing to be the Consequence of what I have laid down. But if by the Author of Sin, is meant the Permitter, or not a Hinderer of Sin; and at the same Time, a Disposer of the State of Events, in such a Manner, for wise, holy and most excellent Ends and Purposes, that Sin, if it be permitted or not hindered, will most certainly and infallibly follow: I say, if this be all that is meant, by being the Author of Sin, I don't deny that God is the Author of Sin, (tho' I dislike and reject the Phrase, as that which by Use and Custom is apt to carry another Sense) it is no Reproach for the most High to be thus the Author of Sin. This is not to be the Actor of Sin, but on the contrary, of Holiness. What God doth herein, is holy; and a glorious Exercise of the infinite Excellency of his Nature. And I don't deny, that God's being thus the Author of Sin, follows from what I have laid down; and I assert, that it equally follows from the Doctrine which is maintained by most of the Arminian Divines.

II. They who object, that this Doctrine makes God the Author of Sin, ought distinctly to explain what they mean by that Phrase, The Author of Sin. I know, the Phrase, as it is commonly used, signifies something very Ill. If by the Author of 〈…〉 ▪ be meant the Sinner, the Agent, or Actor of Sin, or the Do•r of a wicked Thing; so it would be a Reproach and Blasphemy, to suppose God to be the Author of Sin. In this Sense, I utterly deny God to be the Author of Sin; rejecting such an Imputation on the most High, as what is infinitely to be abhor'd; and deny any such Thing to be the Consequence of what I have laid down. But if by the Author of Sin, is meant the Permitter, or not a Hinderer of Sin; and at the same Time, a Disposer of the State of Events, in such a Manner, for wise, holy and most excellent Ends and Purposes, that Sin, if it be permitted or not hindered, will most certainly and infallibly follow: I say, if this be all that is meant, by being the Author of Sin, I don't deny that God is the Author of Sin, (tho' I dislike and reject the Phrase, as that which by Use and Custom is apt to carry another Sense) it is no Reproach for the most High to be thus the Author of Sin. This is not to be the Actor of Sin, but on the contrary, of Holiness. What God doth herein, is holy; and a glorious Exercise of the infinite Excellency of his Nature. And I don't deny, that God's being thus the Author of Sin, follows from what I have laid down; and I assert, that it equally follows from the Doctrine which is maintained by most of the Arminian Divines.