The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God…

The question then is, What Will doth Mr. Shepherd here mean? The Learned have distinguished of the Will of God (not as if God had more wills then one, as some would fasten upon us) that is, either the voluntas, signi vel beneplaciti, which Strangius, following Channier, had rather call voluntas, [Greek or Hebrew], & [Greek or Hebrew]; this distinction only hath place here for his Antecedent and Consequent; Absolute and Conditionate will, be they true or false, have no room here.

The question then is, What Will doth Mr. Shepherd here mean? The Learned have distinguished of the Will of God (not as if God had more wills then one, as some would fasten upon us) that is, either the voluntas, signi vel beneplaciti, which Strangius, following Channier, had rather call voluntas, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, & 〈non-Latin alphabet〉; this distinction only hath place here for his Antecedent and Consequent; Absolute and Conditionate will, be they true or false, have no room here.

The will of his pleasure then Mr. Shepherd must mean, yea, and doth so express himself in terms, in several places: but the question again is, How shall we come to know this Will of his? where is it made known? Learned Rutherford tells us, Voluntas signi, ¹respectu sui objecti est propriissimè voluntas; nam quod Deus praecipit, vult & approbat ut rem bonam & sanctam: quod vetat improbat ut malum: & ab aeterno decrevit, ut illa res sit bona, etiam voluntate beneplaciti & decernente: ideóque objectum omne voluntatis signi est voti tum voluntate beneplaciti, &c. What shall we say to Gods Command to Abraham to sacrifice his Son? If Mr. Shepherd will have us look here for this Will of God, in his command, promise or threat, then we know where to find it: If these sinking discouragements under these thoughts be such an object, as the will of his good pleasure hath manifested his dislike by forbidding them, then Mr. Shepherd hath said right; but that Text we never read as yet; so that he must mean only his secret Will, that we may suppose, imagine, to be his Will, though it be not known or revealed.