2. Strictly, it is taken for our complacency and delight in God. Divines distinguish of a twofold love ; a love of benevolence and a love of complacency. The love of benevolence is the desiring of the felicity of another ; the love of complacency is the well-pleasedness of
VkE. 14.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 141
the soul in a suitable good. God lovetli us both thes6 ways ; with the love of benevolence : ' For so God loved the world/ &c., John iii. 16 ; with the love of complacency, and so ' The upright in the way are his delight.' But we love God with but one of these, not with the love of benevolence ; for he is above our injuries and benefits, and needeth nothing from us to add to his felicity ; therefore we cannot be said to love him with the love of benevolence, unless very improperly, when we desire his glory; but we love him with a love of complacency when the soul is well pleased in God, or delights in him, which is begun here, and perfected hereafter. This is spoken of. Ps. xxxvii. 4, * Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.' And it is seen in this, when we count his favour and presence our chiefest happiness, and value an interest in him above all the world, Ps. xvi. 6. 7, and Ps. iv. 6, 7 ; and when we delight in other things, as they belong to God : Ps. cxix. 14, * I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.'
3. Love is sometimes put in scripture for that which is properly called a desiring, seeking love. Which is our great duty in this life, because now we are in via, in the way to home, in an estate of imper- fect fruition, and therefore our love venteth itself most by desires and by an earnest seeking after God. The river is contented to flow within its banks till it come into the ocean, and there it expatiateth itself. It is described by the psalmist, Ps. Ixiii. 8, 'My soul followeth hard after thee ; ' and, Isa. xxvi. 9, ' With my soul have I desired thee in the night.' This love we show when the mercy of God is most desired, valued and sought after, and those mercies most of all wljich do show us most of God himself, and do most help up our love to him, as when we desire spiritual blessings above temporal, wisdom and grace rather than wealth and honour. For spiritual wisdom is the principal thing, Prov. iv. 7 ; for it revealeth most of God to us, and is a less impediment in the ascending of our minds and hearts to him than wealth, or honour, or secular learning, or whatsoever subserveth the interest of the flesh. The world is full of allurements to the flesh; and since we have separated the creature from God, and love it apart from God, these temporal mercies, which should raise the mind to him, are the greatest means to keep it from him. Therefore the soul of one that loveth God, though it doth not despise the bounty of his daily providence, yet it is mainly bent after those mercies which are the distinguishing and peculiar testimonies of his favour, and do more especially direct the soul to him : ' Set your affections on things that are above, and not on things which are on earth,' Col. iii. 2.
4. To omit other distinctions, the love which we are upon is the love of gratitude and thankfulness. Not the general love which com- priseth all religion, either in its own nature or in its means and fruits ; not the particular love of delight and complacency, by which we delight in God, and all the manifestations of himself to us. Nor, thirdly, not the seeking and desiring love, by which we seek to get more of God into our hearts, and above all do desire and seek the endless enjoyment of him in glory. These work not so expressly as this love of gratitude, concerning which observe three things —
[1.] The general nature of it. It is a gracious and holy love, which
142 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XXIII.
the soul returneth back to God again, upon the apprehension of his love to us. Gospel love is properly a returning love, a thankful love. Love is like a diamond that is not properly wrought upon but by its own dust. It is love that begetteth love : 1 John iv. 19, ' We love him because he loved us first ; ' as fire begets fire, or as an echo returneth Avliat it receiveth. It is a reflection or a reverberation, or casting back, of God's beam upon himself. As a cold wall sendeth back a reflection of heat when the sun hath shone upon it, so our cold hearts, being warmed with a sense of God's love, return love to him again: Cant. i. 3, ' Thy name is an ointment poured forth; therefore the virgins love thee.' When the box of spikenard is broken, and the savour of his good ointments shed abroad, then the virgins love him ; hearts are attracted to him. The more God's love to us is known and lelt, the more love we have to God.