(2.) For that suitable return which is required, this also (in a main part of it, beyond which I shall not now extend it) consisteth in love. Deut. vi. 4, 5. God loves, that he may be beloved. “Amor supernè descendens ad divinam pulchritudinem omnia convocat.” — Proclus lib. de Anima et Dæm. When he comes to command the return of his received love, to complete communion with him, he says, “My son, give me thine heart,” Prov. xxiii. 26, — thy affections, thy love. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,” Luke x. 27; this is the return that he demandeth. When the soul sees God, in his dispensation of love, to be love, to be infinitely lovely and loving, rests upon and delights in him as such, then hath it communion with him in love. This is love, that God loves us first, and then we love him again. I shall not now go forth into a description of divine love. Generally, love “Unio substantialis est causa amoris sui ipsius; similitudinis, est causa amoris alterius; sed unio realis quam amans quærit de re amata, est effectus amoris.” — Thom. 12, q. 28, 1, 3. is an affection of union and nearness, with complacency therein. So long as the Father is looked on under any other apprehension, but only as acting love upon the soul, it breeds in the soul a dread and aversation. Josh. xxii. 5, xxiii. 11; Neh. i. 5. Hence the flying and hiding of sinners, in the Scriptures. But when he who is the Father is considered as a father, acting love on the soul, this Ps. xviii. 1, xxxi. 23, xcvii. 10, cxvi. 1; 1 Cor. ii. 9; James i. 12; Isa. lvi. 6; Matt. xxii. 37; Rom. viii. 28. raises it to love again. This is, in faith, the ground of all acceptable obedience, Deut. v. 10; Exod. xx. 6; Deut. x. 12, xi. 1, 13, xiii. 3.