6. Yea, and also be without the hope of a delivery or outgate. Hence crieth Heman, Psalm lxxxviii. 4-5, "I am counted with them that go down into the pit, free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thine hand." Yea, they may be driven to the very border of despair, and conclude that there is no hope, as the church did, Ezek. xxxvii. 11, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off for our parts;" and as Job, chap. vii. 6, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope;" and chap. xix. 10, "He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: mine hope hath been removed like a tree."
Now, though sometimes, as we see in Job, and in Heman too, a soul may be under such a sad and sharp dispensation, and yet not brought to question their state, or to conclude themselves children of wrath, lying still in black nature, yet it is not so with all who are so exercised; but many under such a dispensation, may at least be in the dark as to their state before God; and if they do not positively assert their state to be bad, yet they do much question if they be in the state of grace, and would be comforted under all their pressures and afflictions, if they could win to the least well-grounded apprehension of their interest in Christ.
In such a case as this is, there is ground for a poor soul to make use of Christ for outgate; and an outgate may be had in God's time, and as he seeth fit, by a right use-making of and going out to him, who is the Truth. So, then, the soul that would have its state and condition cleared up, and a discovery of its being reconciled to God through Jesus, and in a state of grace, and would make use of Christ as the Truth, for this end, would,
(1.) Look out to Christ, as a feeling High Priest, faithful and merciful, who, being like us in all things, except sin, doth sympathise with, and succour such as are tempted, Heb. ii. 17, 18. And as a Priest, "that is touched with the feeling of our infirmities," Heb. iv. 15. Albeit Christ, in the deepest of his darkness, was never made to question his Sonship, but avouched God to be his God even when he was forsaken, Psalm xxii. 1. Matt, xxvii. 46. Mark xv. 34. Yet he knew what it was to be tempted, to question his Sonship, when the devil said unto him, Matt. iv. 3, "If thou be the Son of God;" and he knows what such a distress as he himself was into, wrestling with an angry God, hiding himself and forsaking, will work in a poor sinner; and being a merciful and sympathising High Priest, he cannot but pity such as are under such a distemper, and, as a gracious Head, sympathise with them. Now, the believer would look out to him as such an one, and upon this ground go to him with confidence and boldness, and lay out their case before him, that he may help and send relief:
(2.) They would also eye Christ as able to save out of that condition, and to command light to shine out of darkness; and so, as one "able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him," Heb. vii. 25.
(3.) And not only so, but eye him also as given, sent, and commissioned of the Father, to be a light to such as sit in darkness; even to the Gentile. Isa. xlii. 6, and xlix. 6. Luke ii. 32. Acts xiii. 47; xxvi. 23. John viii. 12; and this will encourage the poor souls to go out to him with their darkness, when they see that he is sent as a Light and as the Truth, to clear up poor souls that walk in darkness and have no light. When they see that it is his place and office to help them, and consider that he is true to his trust, and true and faithful in all that was committed to him, it not only will embolden them to come forward to him, but it will strengthen their hope, and encourage them to wait on.
(4.) They would stay themselves on him as an all-sufficient helper, renouncing all other, crying out, that they will have no light but his light, and that they will seek no where else for light, but wait at his door, till he, who is the Sun of Righteousness, shall arise in their soul, and come with healing light in his wings.
(5.) They would by faith roll and cast their darkened souls, their confused case, their overwhelmed hearts on him, and leave them there; for he is the only physician; and the blind soul must be put in his hand, who can take away the film, and cause the scales fall off, and make light break into the soul and discover unto it its condition.
(6.) It would be useful and very steadable, in such a time of darkness, for the believer to be frequent in acting direct acts of faith on Christ; that is, be frequent in going to him as an all-sufficient Mediator, as the only refuge and shadow for a poor, weary, scorched soul, Isa. iv. 6. "And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," Isa. xxxii. 2; "as one who is a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat," &c. Isa. xxv, 4. When the soul is thus overwhelmed with clouds, and doubteth of its interest in Christ, it would then put it out of doubt, by flying to him for refuge from the storm of God's indignation, and lay hold on him as he is freely offered in the gospel, and thus renew its grips of him as the offered all-sufficient Mediator, and frequent direct acts of faith will help at length to a reflex act. The soul that is daily running to Christ, according to the covenant, with all its necessities, and laying hold on him as only able to help, will at length come to see that it hath believed on him, and is made welcome by him, and accepted through him. So that reiterated acts of faith on an offered cautioner and salvation, will dispel at length those clouds of darkness that trouble the soul.
7. Such souls would beware of making their bands stronger, and their darkness greater, by their folly and unwise carriage; for this cause they would beware,