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

III. Will not Love to Christ be the best Love ⟨p. 158⟩thou canst attain unto? As he is the best Object of Love, so Love going out to Christ is the best Acting of Love; and pity it is, that any other Object should go away with thy prevailing Love. For,

1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest Love. He that loveth other things, and not Christ, loves nothing but Vanity, and to love Vanity will prove vexation. He that loveth Riches hath vexing sorrow with his love, fretting fears, and perplexing, cutting cares. When thou lovest thy Relations, if they be bad, the more thou lovest, the more thou art Wounded: If they be good, the more evil befalls them, the more thou art grieved. There cannot be love to other things, without love to Christ, but it will be bitter Love; for thou wilt repent of that love, or thou wilt not. If thou dost, then thou wilt find more sorrow for it, more bitterness in it, than ever thou didst find delight, and say, Oh now it doth repent me, that ever I loved the World as I have done; my Pleasures, my Sin, as I have done: But thou wilt never have cause to say, I repent that ever I loved Christ. Never was such a Word heard from the mouth of a sincere Lover of Christ; if thou dost never repent of thy Love to the World and Sin, that Love will certainly end in sorrow, and with bitterness of Soul be fruitlessly lamented in Hell.

1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest Love. He that loveth other things, and not Christ, loves nothing but Vanity, and to love Vanity will prove vexation. He that loveth Riches hath vexing sorrow with his love, fretting fears, and perplexing, cutting cares. When thou lovest thy Relations, if they be bad, the more thou lovest, the more thou art Wounded: If they be good, the more evil befalls them, the more thou art grieved. There cannot be love to other things, without love to Christ, but it will be bitter Love; for thou wilt repent of that love, or thou wilt not. If thou dost, then thou wilt find more forrow for it, more bitterness in it, than ever thou didst find delight, and say, Oh now it doth repent me, that ever I loved the World as I have done; my Pleasures, my Sin, as I have done: But thou wilt never have cause to say, I repent that ever I loved Christ. Never was such a Word heard from the mouth of a sincere Lover of Christ; if thou dost never repent of thy Love to the World and Sin, that Love will certainly end in sorrow, and with bitterness of Soul be fruitlesly lamented in Hell.