Free Moral Agent vs. Mere Automaton

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, 

Q: How long halt ye between two opinions? 

if the LORD be God, follow Him: 

but if Baal, then follow him. 

the people answered him not a word.
1 Kings 18:21

"God placed man under law, as an indispensable condition of his very existence.

He was a subject of the divine government, and there can be no government without law.
--God might have created man without the power to transgress His law; 

--He might have withheld the hand of Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; 

--but in that case man would have been, 

not a free moral agent, 

but a mere automaton." 

E.G.W.