A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

The first and most signal object of our memory, which the Scripture speaketh of,¹ is God himself; God is not only the object of our faith, and of our love, of our minds and wills, but also of our memory; We should always keep up the remembrance of God in our thoughts,² and this would be a most potent Antidote against all kind of sin; Therefore is all evil committed, because we do not ⟨p. 258⟩remember God at that time, Deut. 8. 18. Moses doth there command the people of Israel to take heed of trusting in their own righteousness and goodness, or of attributing their wealth and riches to their own power. But (saith he) thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, implying, That the Sun and the night can no more stand together, then the remembering of God, and carnal confidence can; the ambitious man, the voluptuous man, remembering God, would find it to be like thunder and lightning upon the soul; This would immediately stop him in his ways of iniquities: Thus 2 Sam. 14 11. that suborned woman of Tekoah in her disguised Parable to David, complaining of some that would rise up against her, to destroy her son, she desireth the King to stop the revengers wrath by this Argument, Let the King remember the Lord thy God: Thus when thou art solicited, enticed to any evil, way, Remember thou God, the infinite God, the just God, the omniscient God, the dreadful and terrible God in all his ways of anger. Nehemiah also maketh use of this Argument to quicken up the Jews against sinful fear and cowardice in Gods work, Nehem. 4. 14. 1 said to the Nobles and Rulers of the people, be ye not afraid of them, but remember the Lord which is great and terrible. This God complaineth of, Isa. 57. 11. Thou hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart, and therefore were they so propense to all their abominations. These Texts may suffice to inform, that our memories ought constantly to be fixed upon God, and no sooner do we let him out of our mind, but immediately some sin or other is committed. But how unspeakably is the memory of every man naturally polluted herein? When is God in their thoughts? Amongst those millions and millions of objects which thou dost remember, when is the great God, the just God, the holy God thought on? May you not see it by the bold impiety and undaunted wickedness of all unregenerate men, that they remember not God?