Holiness Is The Beauty Of GOD.

The beauty and glory of a Christian!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, 
or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662) 

Holiness will render you most beautiful 
and amiable. As holiness is the beauty 
of GOD, and the beauty of angels--
so it is the beauty and glory 
of a Christian also. Holiness casts 
such a beauty upon man, as makes 
him very amiable and desirable. 

The redness of the rose, the whiteness 
of the lily, and all the beauties 
of the natural universe--
are but deformities compared to that 
beauty which holiness puts upon us. 

If all natural beauty were 
contracted into one beauty--
yet it would be but an obscure and 
an unlovely beauty, compared to that 
beauty which holiness puts upon us!

Holiness is lovely, yes--
loveliness itself. Purity is 
a Christian's splendor and glory. 
There is no beauty compared to 
that of sanctity; nothing beautifies 
and bespangles a man like holiness. 

Holiness is so attractive 
and so lovely a thing--
that it draws all eyes and 
hearts to an admiration of it. 

Holiness is so great a beauty--
that it puts a beauty upon all other 
excellencies in a man. That holiness 
is a very beautiful thing, and that it 
makes all those beautiful who have it--
is a truth that no devil can deny! 

"Demetrius," says Plutarch, "was so 
lovely of face, that no painter was 
able to draw him." Just so, holiness 
puts so rare a beauty upon man--
that no painter under heaven 
is able to draw him!

Scipio Africanus was so lovely 
a person, that the Spaniards 
stood amazed at his loveliness. 
Holiness puts such a loveliness, and 
such an amiableness upon a person--
that many admire it, and stand 
amazed at it. 

O sirs, as ever you would be 
amiable and desirable--be holy! 

As ever you would be attractive 
and lovely--be holy! 

As ever you would outshine 
the sun in splendor and glory--
labor to be holy!

Many have ventured their names, 
their estates, their liberties, their 
lives, yes, their very souls--
to enjoy a lovely Bathsheba, 
an attractive Helena, a beautiful 
Diana, a lovely Cleopatra, etc.--
whose beauties have been 
but clay, well-colored. 

Oh, how much more, then, 
should you be provoked to labor 
and venture your all for holiness--
which will imprint upon you that 
most excellent and most exquisite 
beauty; which will go to the grave 
and to glory with you; yes, which 
will render you not only amiable 
and excellent in the eyes of men--
but also lovely and lovely 
in the eyes of GOD!

Unholy souls are . . .
  foul souls,
  ugly souls,
  deformed souls,
  withered souls,
  wrinkled souls,
  altogether unlovely souls.

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