The Art of Divine Contentment

2. Forgetting what we hear^*. If §2a Scholar have his Rules laid before him, and he forgets them as fast as he reads them, he will never learn^†. Aristotle calls the Memory, the Scribe of the Soul; and Bernard calls it the Stomach of the Soul, because it hath a retentive faculty, and turns heavenly food into blood and spirits. We have great memories in other things; we remember that which is vain. Cyrus could remember the name of every Soldier in his huge Army; we remember injuries^*. This is to fill a precious Cabinet with dung; but, quàm facilis oblivio boni? as Hierom saith, how soon do we forget the sacred truths of God? We are apt to forget three things, our faults, our ⟨p. 8⟩friends, our instructions. Many Christians are like Sieves, put a Sive into the water, and it is full; but take it forth of the water, and all runs out: So, while they are hearing of a Sermon, they remember something; but take the Sieve out of the water, as soon as they are gone out of the Church, all is forgotten. Let these sayings (saith Christ) sink down into your ears^*; in the Original it is, put these sayings into your cares^*; As a man that would hide a jewel from being stolen, locks it up safe in his chest, Let them sink; The word must not only fall as dew that wets the leaf, but as rain which soaks to the root of the tree, and makes it fructify. Oh how often doth Satan, that fowl of the Air, pick up the good seed that is sown!

2. Forgetting what we hear^*. If §2a Scholar have his Rules laid before him, and he forgets them as fast as he reads them, he will never learn