Matthew Poole and continuators on John 8:33

33 They answered him , We be Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any man h: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free ?

This made them angry, That Christ should speak of their being made Free; for those that are Free, are not in a capacity to be made Free. The Iews were a People very tenacious of their Liberty, and gloried much in the right they had to it.

How carnally doth a carnal heart understand Spiritual Mysteries? Thus Nicodemus hearing of being born again, grosly dreamed, of entring into his Mothers Womb, and being born again. The woman of Samaria, hearing of living Water, dreamt of Water that should so satisfie her Thirst, as she should never come again to the Well to draw. The Iews here hearing of being made free, dream of a freedom from Human Bondage and Slavery. To what our Saviour had said, That if they knew the Truth, the Truth should make them free; They reply, We are Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any. Admitting that they were Abrahams seed, that is Iews, were not the Iews in Bondage? first, to Pharaoh King of Aegypt; then to Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon: they were [illegible: 1 letter]ow in Bondage to the Romans. They must either understand it of their own Persons, tho they were Tributar[illegible: 1 letter]es, they were no Slaves; or else concerning their Right, they had a right to Liberty, though they were under an Extrinsick Servitude to their Conquerors.

Marginal references: ver. 39.