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Nor any proper notions thereof reach,
Though fublimated to the highest stretch.
Mafters of reafon, plodding men of sense,
Who fcorn to mortify their vain pretence,
In this myfterious deep might plod their fill;
It overtops the top of all their fkill.

The more they vainly huff, and scorn to read,
The more it does their foolish wit exceed.

Thofe finners that are fanctify'd in part,
May read this Riddle truly in their heart.
Yea, weakest faints may feel its trueft fenfe,
Both in their fad and fweet experience.
Do'nt overlook it with a rambling view,
And rash suppose it neither good nor true.
Let Heav'n's pure oracles the truth decide;
Renounce it, if it can't thy test abide.
Noble Bereans foon the fenfe may hit,
Who found the divine depth of facred writ;
Not by what airy carnal reafon faith,
But by the golden line of heav'n-spun faith.
Let not the naughty phrafe make you difprove
The weighty matter which deferves your love.
The fubject treated may be moft profound,
Though words may rattle with a ruftic found.
High ftrains would fpoil the Riddle's grand intent,
To teach the weakeft, moft illit'rate faint,
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 worst nor best,
Too much exalted, or too much depreft.
This paradox is fitted to difclofe

The skill of Zion's friends above her foes;
To diff'rence, by light that heav'n 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,
Becaufe not garnifh'd with a pompous ftile.
Could th' author at the lofty poets part,

Who make their fonnets foar on wings of art,

He on his theme had blufh'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 lit'rature 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 lefs,
If wi' th' majestical fimplicity

Of fcripture-orat'ry they difagree.

These lines pretend not to affect the sky, Content among inglorious fhades to ly,

Provided facred truth be fitly clad,

Or glorious fhine ev'n through the dufky fhade.
Mark then, though thou fhould mifs the gilded ftrain,
If they a ftore of golden truth contain:

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 fcripture-day;
Yet gospel-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 trade 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 Papist won't difcern nor fee,
How works are good, unlefs they juify.
Thus Legalifis diftinguifh not the odds
Between their home-bred righteoufnefs and God's.

Antinomifts the faints perfection plead,
Nor duly fever 'tween them and their head.
Socinians won't thefe feeming odds agree,
How heav'n is bought, and yet falvation free.
Bold Arians hate to reconcile or fcan,
How Chrift is truly God, and truly man;
Holding the one part of IMMANUEL's name,
The other part outrageoufly blafpheme.
The found in faith no part of truth control;
Heretics own the half, but not the whole.

Keep then the facred myft'ry flill entire;
To both the fides of truth due 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, if verify'd in you.

Go forward then to read the lines, but flay,
To read the Riddle alfo by the way.

****** ****

The

******

RIDDLE.

SECT. I.

**

The Mystery of the Saints PEDIGREE, and especially of their Relation to CHRIST's wonderful Perfon.

Y life's a maze of feeming traps, I

MY

A fcene of mercies and mifhaps; 2

A heap of jarring to-and-froes, 3
A field of joys, a flood of woes. 4

1 Josh. xxiii. 13. And Joshua faid, Know for a certainty, that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of thefe nations from before you; but they fall be inares and traps into you, and fcourges in your fides, and thorns in your eyes, &c. Pfalm cxxiv. 7. Our foul is efcaped as a bird out of the fnare of the fowlers; the faare is broken, and we are escaped.

2 Or MISERIES, Lam. iii. 19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Ver. 22. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not confumed; because his compaífions fail not. Palm ci. 1. I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I fing.

3 Palm cii. 10. Thou haft lifted me up, and cait me down. Pfalm cix. 23. I am toffed up and down as the locuft.

4 Hab. iii. 17, 18. Although the fig-tree fhall not bloffom, neither fhall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olives thall fail, and the fields fhall yield no meat, the flock fhail be cut off from the fold, and there fhall be no herd in the falls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my falvation.

I'm in my own, and others eyes,

A labyrinth of myfteries. I

I'm fomething that from nothing came; 2
Yet fure it is I nothing am. 3

Once I was dead, and blind, and lame, 4
Yea, I continue ftill the fame; 5
Yet what I was, I am no more, 6
Nor ever fhall be as before. 7

My Father lives 8, my father's gone, 9
My vital head both loft and won. 10
My parents cruel are, and kind, II
Of one, and of a diff'rent mind. 12

1 Ifa. viii. 18. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for wonders in Ifrael; from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. Zech. iii. 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high-priest, thou and thy fellow's that fit before thee: for they are men wondered at, &c. Pfalm lxxi. 7. I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong tower.

2 Gen. i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Heb. xiii. 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things which are feen, were not made of things which do appear.

3 Ifa. xl. 17. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him lefs than nothing, and vanity. Dan. iv. 35. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.

4 Eph. ii. 1. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trefpaffes and fins. Rev. iii. 17. Because thou fayft, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knoweft not that thou art wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Ifa. xxxv. 6. Then fhall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb fing: for in the wilderness fhall waters break out, and ftreams in the defart.

5 Rom. vii. 14. For we know that the law is fpiritual: but I am carnal, fold under fin. Ver. 24. O wretched man that I am! who fhall deliver me from the body of this death?

6 Rom. vii. 17. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but fin that dwelleth in me. Ver. 20. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but fin that dwelleth in me. John ix. 25. He (viz. the blind man) answered and faid, Whether he be a finner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I fee.

7 Rom. xi. 29. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Jer. xxxii. 40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they fhall not depart from me.

8 Ifa. ix. 6. His name thall be called, The everlasting Father. Rev. i. 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. 9 Hofea xiv. 3. In thee the fatherlels findeth mercy. Zech. i. 5. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?

10 1 Cor. xv. 45. It is written, The first Adam was made a living foul, the last Adam was made a quickening fpirit.

11 Pfalm ciii. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children, fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Ifa. xliii. 27. Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have tranfgreffed against me.

12 Job xxiii. 13. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doth. Rom. viii. 5. For they that are after

My father poifon'd me to death, I
My mother's hand will ftop my breath; 2
Her womb, that once my fubftance gave,
Will very quickly be my grave. 3
My fifters all my flesh will eat, 4
My brethren tread me under feet; 5
My nearest friends are most unkind, 6
My greatest foe's my greatest friend. 7
He could from feud to friendship pass,
Yet never change from what he was. 8
He is my Father, he alone,

Who is my Father's only Son. 9

the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Ver. 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not fubject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

1 Rom. v. 12. Wherefore, as by one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have finned.

2 Gen. iii. 16. Unto the woman he faid, I will greatly multiply thy forrow, and thy conception: in forrow thou fhalt bring forth children, &c.

3 Pfalm cxlvi. 4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts perish. Eccl. iii. 20. All go into one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to the duft again.

4 Job xvii. 14. I have faid to corruption, Thou art my father; and to the worm, Thou art my fifter. Chap. xix. 26. And though after my skin, worms deftroy this body, yet in my flesh fhall I fee God.

5 Even in a moral fenfe, Jer. xii. 10. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleafant portion a defolate wilderness. Ezek. xxxiv. 18. Seemeth it a small thing unto you, to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the refidue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye muft foul the refidue with your feet.

6 Pfalm lv. 12, 13. For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it; neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himfelf against me, then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. Micah vii. 5, 6. Truft ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bofom. For the fon difhonoureth the father, the daughter rifeth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her motherin-law: a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

7 Pfalm vii. 11. God is angry with the wicked every day. 2 Cor. v. 19. God was in Chrift, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trefpaffes unto them.

8 Mal. iii. 6. For I am the Lord, I change not: therefore ye fons of Jacob are not confumed. Hofea xiv. 4. I will heal their backfliding, I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him.

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9 John xx. 17. Jefus faith unto her (viz. Mary), Touch me not; for I am not yet afcended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and fay unto them, I afcend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. Ifa. ix. 6. Unto us a Son is given: and his name fhall be called, The everlafting Father. John i. 14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, fall of grace and truth.

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