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

¶. 4.

The Names which the Scripture expresseth that by, which we call Free-Will.

The next thing in our method that will be explicating of the Doctrine, is to take notice of, What names the Scripture useth to express this thing by, that we call Free-will; for free-will is not a Scripture name, but Ecclesiastical, yet the sense of it is in the Scripture; for [Greek or Hebrew], is often used in the Scripture, to will, and that in such things wherein freedom is necessarily supposed, Luk. 22. 9. Where wilt thou, that we prepare a place? Joh. 9. 27. Wherefore would ye hear it again, will ye also be his Disciple? Act 7. 28, wilt thou kill me also, &c. and in many other places, hence [Greek or Hebrew] is used for the free-will of a man, 1 Cor. 7. 37, and indeed it is disputed, whether to do a thing voluntariè, and liberè, voluntarily and freely be not all one, and so libertas, and voluntas, only voluntas denoteth the power and liberty, the qualification of it in its working. Jansenius is most confident, that in Austin's constant dispute with the Pelagians, liberum arbitrium, is no more then voluntas, and that to do a thing freely, is no more then to do it voluntarily; this he maintaineth against the Jesuits, and withal wonders at a late Writer of their own (whom he nameth not) which writeth, that the word servum arbitrium, was not heard in the Church of God for fifteen hundred years, It is Bellarmine that saith so, but our Divines had detected this falsehood long before Jansenius. Howsoever Austin may use the word, yet the Scripture expresseth that which we call the will by, [Greek or Hebrew] and [Greek or Hebrew]. A second word to express liberty is [Greek or Hebrew], liberty, yet this is not so much applied to the liberty of the will, as to the liberty of a man, as here in the Text, the son shall make you free, your persons not your wills; but because there is an universal bondage in all the powers of the soul to sin, blindness in the mind, contumacy in the will; (for Quid est libertas sine gratiâ, nisi contumacia.) What is liberty in the will without grace, but contumacy against God, and a wilful delight in evil ways, Inordinacy in the affections: therefore the person is said to be made free, not but that the will is principally included in this, only the will is not all that is made free, 2 Cor 3. 17, where the spirit of the Lord is, thereby is liberty;