"That God's free and voluntary permission of sin lays no man under any forcible or compulsive necessity of committing it; consequently the Deity can by no means be termed the author of moral evil, to which He is not, in the proper sense of the word, accessory, but only remotely or negatively so, inasmuch as He could, if He pleased, absolutely prevent it" (Jerome Zanchius, Absolute Predestination).
In other words, the Sovereign Woodsman who takes up the axe and actively swings it, does not lay the axe under any forcible or compulsive necessity to be swung. Zanchi's "woodsman" could, if he pleased, absolutely prevent the axe from raising and swinging itself (cf. Isaiah 10:5-15).
A bit more from Zanchius (this time on "providential restraint"):
"He need but slacken the reins of providential restraint and withhold the influence of saving grace, and apostate man will too soon, and too surely, of his own accord, 'fall by his iniquity;' he will presently be, spiritually speaking, a felo de se, and, without any other efficiency, lay violent hands on his own soul" (Jerome Zanchius, Absolute Predestination).
