A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

The second Privilege is, The truth shall make them free; Every man (till regenerated) is in bondage and captivity, to blindness in his mind, to lust in his will; ⟨p. 304⟩And there is nothing can set us at liberty from this dungeon and prison, but the grace of God by the Word preached.

The second Priviledge is, The truth shall make them free; Every man (till regenerated) is in bondage and captivity, to blindness in his mind, to lust in hiswill; ⟨p. 304⟩And there is nothing can set us at liberty from this dungeon and prison, but the grace of God by the Word preached.

But no sooner is this Privilege spoken of, then it stirreth up the Cavils and Objections of some that heard it, They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man, How then doest thou say, Ye shall be made free? Some think, That those who are said to believe did argue thus; But this seemeth very harsh; Therefore no doubt some others that were in the multitude, that did not believe, they were offended at this speech of our Saviours, and therefore dispute against it, arrogating to themselves both a Native freedom, We are Abraham's seed; and also an actual one, We were never in bondage to any man. This expression exerciseth Interpreters very much, for whether by [We] they mean their Ancestors or Themselves, living at that time; It is plain, at first they were in bondage in Egypt, afterwards in Babylon, and at that present in bondage to the Roman Empire, How then could they affirm such a notorious lie, that they were never in bondage to any man? Some say, They mean of such vassals and slaves, as sometimes in war are taken and sold to others: Now (though the Israelites were often conquered, and brought under the power of others, yet) they were never sold slaves, and so not in bondage in that sense. Others say, They do not speak of a Civil, or Public, and State-Liberty, but (as it were) a religious and holy freedom; For, though they were in civil bondage, yet they glorified in Abraham's seed, and the religious freedom thereby in respect of Gods favour. So Hensius (in his Aristarchus Sacer. upon this place,) They (saith he) who spake this, did attend to the Law and Covenant, for such who obeyed the Law, they called free. Hence they had a paradoxical Proverb, None unless he exercise himself in the study of the Law, is to be accounted a free man; And, Qui observat legem esse Regem, even as the Stoics say of their wise man. Sixtus Senesis maketh these words to be spoken by some of the Galileans, who would never own any foreign power, but did choose rather to die, then to make such an acknowledgement. That which many pitch upon is, That the Jews speak this to Christ from their pride and arrogancy, not willing to take any notice of their external subjection, but so that they may oppose Christ, care not what they say, though never so contrary to Truth.