[3.] The returning love, or the love of gratitude or thankfulness : 1 John iv. 19, ' We love him because he first loved us ; ' 2 Cor. v. 14, ' The love of Christ constraineth us ; ' as fire begetteth fire, or as the echo returneth what it receiveth ; it is a reflection, a reverberation, or a beating back of God's own beam upon himself. Thus we love God, as willing to be reconciled to us in Christ, so as we devote ourselves to his service, will, and honour, to serve him with all our power, and to use all our mercies for his glory. We consecrate ourselves to him : Rom. xii. 1, ' I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
140 SERMON UPON I CORINTHIANS VIII. 3.
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.' We use ourselves for him : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' Ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.'
Thirdly, The qualification of the act, if we sincerely love him. The sincerity of our love to God is seen in two things — (1.) The eminency of the degree ; (2.) The genuine and proper effect. Both together dis- cover the sincerity of love.
1. For the degree, God must be loved above all, so as he may have no rival and competitor in the soul : Ps. Ixxiii. 25, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.' There is a partial half love to God, when a greater love is to other things. This cannot be consistent with sincerity ; for then religion will be an underling, and God's interest least minded. Oar Lord telleth us, Mat. X. 37, ' He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.' If anything be nearer and dearer to us than God, and any advantages we expect from men be preferred before our duty to him, we are no way fit for Christ's service, or qualified for our duty to him, because these worldly interests will soon draw us to some unbe- coming practice or action contrary to our fidelity to him. Therefore the saints are ever liberal in professing how much they value his favour above all things : Ps. Ixiii. 3, ' Thy loving-kindness is better than life.' There is nothing so comfortable in this world that we should prefer before the feeling, or the hope of feeling, of God's love to us.
2. The genuine and proper effect of this love, which is a ready obey- ing of his will, or making it our chief care to please God and keep his commandments: John xiv. 21, 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; ' and 1 John v. 3, ' This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.' Our love is a love of duty, as God's love is a love of bounty ; for it is not the love of a supe- rior to an inferior or equal, but like the love of a wife to a husband, of children to parents, of subjects to their benign lord ; all which rela- tions infer a dutiful subjection on our part.
II. What it is to be known of God.
1. In scripture, it importeth his eternal election before all time : Eom. viii. 29, 'Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate ; ' 2 Tim. ii. 19, * The foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.' God's love made inquisition for us whilst as yet we lay in the confused heap of nothing, and singled us out from the rest of the corrupted mass of mankind. And so it may make a good sense here. Whosoever loveth God is known of God. He did not prevent God, but God prevented him, knew him, and loved him long before he knew and loved God.
2. His gracious conversion in time. So God is said to know us when he calleth us to faith in Christ: Gal. iv. 9, 'But now after that ye have known God, or rather were known of God ; ' that is, after ye were converted to Christ, or rather prevented by God. In an uncon- verted estate, God taketh no notice or knowledge of us, so as to be familiar with us, or communicate any saving blessings to us ; therefore to be known of God is to receive special mercy from him, as a conse-
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quent of our former election. Our sins stopped not the current of his love and mercy to us ; but he first gave us being, then gave us grace. He maketh that amiable which he is pleased to set his love upon, and doth esteem us for what he puts into us : Eph. i. 6, ' To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved,' e^aptT(U(Tei/.
3. His particular notice of them in the course of his providence. [1.] Before conversion, with respect to his elective love : Jer. i. 5,