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

In the third place, The memory is naturally unsanctified in this particular, §IIIthat wherein it can or doth remember, ¹there it produceth not suitable operations, nor doth it obtain its end. The end of remembering what is good, is to love it, ⟨p. 264⟩to practise it, and to imitate it; The end of remembering evil, is to loath it bitterly, to repent of it, and to fly from it: Now herein our memory is grossly polluted, that it never obtaineth this blessed and holy end, whereas if our memories were never so admirable, as that of Simonides, or Apollonius Thyaneus, when he was about an hundred years old, yet if our memory be not effectual, and operative, to make us more holy and heavenly, this is a sinful and defiled memory: And for this reason it is, that wicked men are said to forget God, because though they do remember him, yet they do not perform those duties, to which their memory should be subservient. For as the end of knowledge, is action, so the end of memory also is to be doing; and as it is said, If ye know these things, happy are ye, if ye do them; so when ye remember these things, it's a blessed thing to put them in practise. But how often do we see by experience, that where the memory is naturally very good, there morally it is very bad and sinful? Do you not meet with many that can remember the Scripture, remember Sermons, yet never remember the practice of them? whereas God hath given us memory, for the same end he hath given us a knowledge, which is to direct and help us in our operations. That as in beasts, they have a sensitive memory in them to preserve their natural being, The Ox remembereth his Masters crib; the bird remembereth her seasons, and all this for natural preservation; The Bee remembereth the place of her hive; The Ant her nest, (though some Philosophers, because of the great siccity of the constitution of those creatures, attribute it to a natural instinct, rather then memory:) so this should be much more true in men, therefore doth God bestow on us an intellectual memory, that thereby he might spiritually preserve himself, making use of that which is advantageous to his soul, and avoiding all that which is destructive. As then we are not to know only that we may know, or to know thereby, making ostentation that others may take notice of it;