Love to Christ, necessary to escape the curse at his coming

V. Dost thou love Christ, and live without communion with him? And when he is absent from thy Soul, art never troubled at it? Doth not Love desire sweet converse, and familiar intercourse, with the person that is the object of thy Love? Can Lovers be long asunder, and not desire a meeting? Canst thou account the presence of the beloved object a burden to thee? Or is not his absence really so? Dost thou think that he doth love thee, that is weary of thy company, or never desirous of it? Or shuns the place where thou dost wont to be? If indeed thou lovest Christ, thou couldst be content to be without any thing than without him: Thou couldst better be without thy health than without Christ, without thy dearest friend next to Christ, than without Christ; that is to thee the dearest of all, if thou dost love him. Without thy Meat and Drink, even thy necessary ⟨p. 135⟩Food, than without Christ. How is it then that thou canst take up contentedly without Praying, and without Hearing, or with these without Christ in them? Is it not for want of Love? Lovers have their fainting Fits, ready to faint and dye away when the object cannot be enjoyed. Cant. 2.5. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. Cant. 3.1. By night on any bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth; I sought him but I found him not. 2. I will rise now, and go about the City in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth; I sought him but I found him not. 3. The watchmen that go about the city found me: To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go—The Soul in love with Christ is restless in his absence, and never leaves seeking till it find him, and having found him, holds him fast by Faith and Love, and will not let him go. The Soul that loves doth long, doth thirst, doth breathe and pant, after the beloved object; for what is desire but love in motion, as love is desire at rest? And though a gracious heart finds complacency and rest in love to Christ, yet if Christ be not enjoyed, Love cannot rest, but moveth, in desiring of him, like David, Psal. 42.1. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after God. 2. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?