A treatise of the incomparableness of God in his being, attributes, works and word…

The Laws of the severest Heathen Lycurgus, &c. contained but the Carcass and Body of Purity, had nothing of the Soul and Life thereof. How many Sins against the very Law of Nature did that Lacedaemonian Law-Giver allow of? and where he or any of the rest did forbid Sin, it was in the outward actions, not in the inward affections: Their Laws did rather Command the covering of Sin, that it might not appear abroad, then the killing of Sin, that it might not be at all: Their Laws were defective as to persons, some Men were usually privileged, and not bound to them; as to the parts of men, they gave the inward man liberty, though they restrained the outward, as to Punishments; the greatest Penalty they could think of, or impose, was a Temporal Death; They never dreamed of an Hell in another World. But O how pure! how perfect is the Law of God! Thy Word is very pure, saith David, Psal. 119. So pure, that there is not the least mixture, falsehood or error in it: It commands all, and nothing but, ⟨p. 168⟩conformity to the mind of the great Sovereign, and Lord of all things: The Law of the Lord is perfect, Psal. 19.7. So perfect, that it is not deficient in any thing; It commandeth purity in the whole man, in every faculty of the Soul, in every member of the Body: It commandeth purity in this whole man, at all times, in all companies, in all conditions, in all relations, in all manner of conversation, 1 Pet. 1.15, 16. Psal. 119.1, 2.

The Laws of the severest Heathen Lycurgus, &c. contained but the Carcass and Body of Purity, had nothing of the Soul and Life thereof. How many Sins against the very Law of Nature did that Lacedemonian Law-Giver allow of? and where he or any of the rest did forbid Sin, it was in the outward actions, not in the inward affections: Their Laws did rather Command the covering of Sin, that it might not appear abroad, then the killing of Sin, that it might not be at all: Their Laws were defective as to persons, some Men were usually priviledged, and not bound to them; as to the parts of men, they gave the inward man liberty, though they restrained the outward, as to Punishments; the greatest Penalty they could think of, or impose, was a Temporal Death; They never dreamed of an Hell in another World. But O how pure! how perfect is the Law of God! Thy Word is very pure, saith David,