The BELIEVER'S RIDDLE; Or,
The MYSTERY of FAITH.
Shewing the Ufe and Defign of the RIDDLE.
EADER, the foll'wing enigmatic fong,
Does not to wifeft nat'ralifts belong:
Their wisdom is but folly on this head :
They here may ruminate, but cannot read.
For though they glance the words, the mean-
ing chokes,
They read the lines, but not the paradox.
The fubject will, howe'er the phrase be blunt,
Their most accute intelligence furmount,
If with the nat'ral and acquired fight
They share not divine evangelic light.
Great wits may rouse their fancies, rack their And after all their labour lose their pains; Their wifeft comments were but witless chat, Unapt to frame an explication pat. No unregen'rate mortal's beft engines. Can right unriddle these few rugged lines; Nor any proper notions thereof reach, Though fublimated to the highest stretch. Mafters of reafon, plodding men of fenfe, Who fcorn to mortify their vain pretence,
In this myfterious deep might plod their fill;
It overtops the top of all their skill.
The more they vainly huff, and scorn to read,
The more it does their foolish wit exceed.
Thofe finners that are fanctified in part,
May read this riddle truly in their heart.
Yea, weakest faints may feel its truest sense,
Both in their fad and fweet experience.
Don't overlook it with a rambling view,
And rafh fuppofe it neither good nor true.
Let Heaven's pure oracles the truth decide;
Renounce it, if it can't that teft abide.
Noble Bereans foon the fenfe may hit,
Who found the divine depth of facred writ,
Not by what airy carnal reason faith,
But by the golden line of heaven-spun faith.
Let not the naughty phrate make you dif-
The weighty matter which deferves your love. High ftrains would spoil the riddle's grand inTo teach the weakeft, moft illit'rate faint, [tent, That MAHANAIM is his proper name;
In whom two ftruggling hofts make bloody game. That fuch may know, whofe knowledge is but rude,
How good confifts with ill, and ill with good.
That faints be neither at their worft nor best,
Too much exalted or two much depreft.
This paradox is fitted to disclose
The fkill of Zion's friends above her foes;
To difference by light that Heaven tranfmits,
Some happy fools from miferable wits.
And thus (if blefs'd) it may in fome degree
Make fools their wit, and wits their folly fee.
Slight not the riddle then like jargon vile,
Because not garnish'd with a pompous ftile.
Could th' author act the lofty poets part,
Who make their fonnets foar on wings of art,
He on this theme had blush'd to ufe his fkill,
And either clipt his wings, or broke his quill,
Why, this enigma climbs fuch divine heights
As fcorn to be adorn'd with human flights.
These gaudy ftrains would lovely truth difgrace,
As pureft paint deforms a comely face.
Heav'n's myfteries are 'bove art's ornament,
Immenfely brighter than its brightest paint.
No tow'ring litrator could e'er outwit
The plaineft diction fetch'd from facred writ;
By which mere blazing rhet'ric is outdone,
As twinkling ftars are by the radiant fun.
The foaring orators who can with eafe
Strain the quinteffence of hyperboles,
And clothe the bareft theme with pureft dress, Might here expatiate much, yet say the less, If w' th' majeftical fimplicity
Of fcripture orat'ry they difagree.
These lines pretend not to affect the fky,
Content among inglorious fhades to lie,
Provided facred truth be fitly clad,
Or glorious fhine ev'n through the dusky fhade.
Mark then though you fhould mifs the gilded
If they a ftore of golden truth contain: (ftrain,
Nor under-rate a jewel rare and prime,
Though wrapt up in the rags of homely rhime.
Though haughty Deifts hardly ftoop to fay,
That nature's night has need of scripture-day:
Yet gofpel-light alone will clearly fhew
How ev'ry fentence here is juft and true,
Expel the fhades that may the mind involve,
And foon the feeming contradiction folve.
All fatal errors in the world proceed
From want of fkill fuch myfteries to read.
Vain men the double branch of truth divide,
Hold by the one, and flight the other fide.
'Hence proud Arminians cannot reconcile
Freedom of grace with freedom of the will.
The blinded Papift won't difcern nor fee
How works are good unless they justify.
Thus legalifts diftinguish not the odds (God's.
Between their home-bred righteousness and
Antinomists the faints perfection plead,
Nor duly fever 'tween them and their head.
Socinians won't these seeming odds agree,
How heav'n is bought, and yet falvation free.
Bold Arians hate to reconcile or scan,
How Chrift is truly God and truly man:
Holding the one part of Immanuel's name,
The other part outrageously blafpheme.
The found in faith no part of truth controul:
Heretics own the half, but not the whole.
Keep then the facred myft'ry ftill entire ;
To both the fides of truth do favour bear,
Not quitting one to hold the other branch;
But paffing judgment on an equal bench;
The riddle has two feet, and were but one
Cut off, truth falling to the ground were gone.
'Tis all a contradiction, yet all true,
And happy truth, yet verify'd in you.
Go forward then to read the lines, but stay
To read the riddle alfo by the way.
The mystery of the Saints PEDIGREE, and efpecially of their relation to CHRIST's wonderful person.
Y life's a maze of feeming traps a,
A fcene of mercies and mishaps b;
A heap of jarring to and froes c,
A field of joys, a flood of woes d.
I'm in mine own and others eyes,
A labyrinth of myfteries e.
a Joh. xxii. 13. And Joshua faid, Know for a certainty, that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they fhall be fnares and traps unto you, and fcourges in your fides and thorns in your eyes, &c. Pf cxxiv. 7. Our foul is escaped as a bird out of the fnare of the fowlers; the fnare is broken, and we are escaped.
b Or miferies. Lam. iii. 19. Remembering mine affliction and my mifery, the wormwood and the gall. v. 22. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not confumed, because his compaffions fail not. Pfalm ci. 1. I will fing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord will I fing.
c Pfalm cii. 10. Thou haft lifted me up, and cast me down. Pfalm cix. 23. I am toffed up and down as the locuft.
d Hab. iii. 17, 18. Although the fig tree fhall not bloffom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields fhall yield no meat, the flocks fhall be cut off from the fold, and their fhall be no herd in the ftalls; yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my falvation.
e Ifa. viii. 18. Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for figns, and for wonders in Ifrael; from the Lord of hoft, which dwelleth in mount Zion. Zech. iii. 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that fit before thee: for they are men wondered at, &c. Pfal. Ixxi. 7. I am as a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge.
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