Heaven upon earth in the serene tranquillity and calm composure, in the sweet peace…

If we consider the influencing effect of these dead works on the Conscience, We find it here to be, that they pollute and defile it, as a clear Spring is mudded and defiled by the soul feet of Beasts going through it, even so is this Divine thing, the Conscience defiled by sinful […] in it, which make it to become as it were a cage for every unclean and hateful Bird, or rather as a hold of every •oul Spirit; these Lusts as so many •oul Spirits, swarming in it, pollute and defile it, whereby it becomes quite another thing: Whence we may draw these two Observations; The 1. Whereof is, That dead works, or sins continued in, do pollute and defile a man• Conscience; They make (as I just now said) a clean and […] Conscience to become polluted and filthy, so that ye• ever saw a face more full of foul spots, more deformed by them, then the Conscience is polluted by these dead works, defi•ing sins; Therefore is this word to purge the Conscience, used there; which is rendered to cleans; Ephes. 5 26. That he might sanctify and cleanse his Church; and as simpollu•es the man in all his powers and faculties, so proportionably it pollutes him in his Conscience; which is deeply polluted before it be purged, and cleansed by the blood of Christ: For clearing of it, Consider that there is a threefold pollution that follow• […] in the Conscience; 1. In respect of a mans State […] […] before God; it makes him legally unclean; as we use to say of a Murderer, or a Thief, or any […] […], when found guilty by an Assize, that such a person is filed; so a man by committing of sin is […] guilty obnoxious to punishment, Iyable to wrath, even the eternal Wrath of God, because of it; ⟨p. 327⟩This is a legal Pollution or defilement. 2. In respect of a mans present peace and tranquillity of Conscience; for though he be in a justified and clean state, and hath (it may be) win at clearness of his interest in God, and to peace and tranquillity in his Conscience, so that his peace hath run as a clear, smooth and still River, or Stream; the letting in of sin is like to the driving of a herd of Cattle through a clear running Stream, whereby it is mudded and troubled; so that in stead of Peace, there come in disquieting Challenges; and in stead of clearness, much confusion; as we may see in the sad instances of several of Gods Saints, as particularly in David, after his fall; who therefore