10. Tenthly, Consider, that of all things, holiness will render you most beautiful and amiable. As holiness is the beauty of God,i and the beauty of angels, so it is the beauty and glory of a Christian too. Holiness is a Christian's greatest honour and ornament : Ps, xciii. 5, * Holiness becometh thine house ' — that is, thy church — ' 0 Lord, for ever.' There is no garment that suits the church, that becomes the church, like the garment of holiness. It is sanctity that is the church's excellency and glory ; it is purity that is the church's ornament and beauty. Holiness is a beauty that beautifies the church; it is the gracefulness and comeliness of the church. Holiness is so beautiful a thing that it puts a beauty on all things else. As holiness is the greatest ornament of the church triumphant, so it is the greatest ornament of the church militant, Eph. v. 26, 27. The redness of the rose, the whiteness of the lily, and all the beauties of sun, moon, and stars, are but deformities to that beauty that holiness puts upon us. If all natural and artificial beauty were contracted into one beauty, yet it would be but an obscure and an unlovely beauty to that beauty that holiness puts upon us : Ps. xxix. 2, ' Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name ; worship the Lord in the beauty of hoHness : ' Ps, xcvi. 9, '0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness:' Ps. ex. 3, ' Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauty of holiness.' You see beauty and holiness is by God himself still linked together ; and those whom God hath so closely joined together, no man may put asunder. The scripture last cited doth not only speak out holiness to be a beautiful thing, but it speaks out many beauties to be in holiness. Those Christians that are volunteers in the beauties of holiness, they shall be very beautiful and shining through holiness. Holiness casts such a beauty upon man as makes him very amiable and desirable. The holiness of parents renders them very amiable and desirable in the eyes of their children ; and the holiness of children renders them very amiable and desirable in the eyes of their parents, Isa. xxii. 21. When that incomparable lady, Cornelia, presented her sons to the commonwealth, she said, Hcec sunt mea ornamenta — These are my jewels ; these are my ornaments. Holy children are their pa- rents' crown, their parents' ornaments ; no glistering gold, no sparkling diamonds, no shining or glittering apparel, renders children so amiable and lovely in the eyes of their parents as holiness doth. 2 The holiness of the husband renders him very amiable in the eyes of the wife, and
^ Exod. XV. 11. Plato called God the horn of plenty, and the ocean of beauty, with- out the least spot of injustice. God is ipsa essentialis pulchritudo, beauty itself, the very essential idea and pure sampler of all beauties.
* Xenophon in Plutarch never prayed that his son Qryllus might be long lived, but that he might be a good man.
172 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
the holiness of the wife renders her very desirable in the eyes of her husband. The holiness of the master renders him very lovely in the eyes of his servants, and the holiness of the servants renders them very comely in the eyes of their masters, &c. Jewel's holiness, Bradford's holiness, and Bucer's holiness, rendered them very amiable and lovely, not only in the eyes of their friends, but also in the eyes of their enemies. There is nothing in this world that will render all sorts and ranks of people so glorious and famous in the eyes of one another, as holiness wiE do. Were all ranks and orders of men more holy, they would certainly be more lovely in the eyes of one another. Oh that all men would cease from being injurious one to another, and labour to be more holy ! and then, I am sure, they would be more comely in one another's eyes. Holiness is lovely, yea, loveliness itself. Purity is a Christian's splendour and glory. There is no beauty to that of sanctity ; nothing beautifies and bespangles a man like holiness. Holi- ness is so lovely and so comely 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 that have it, is a truth that no devil can deny ; and, therefore, 0 sirs, as ever you would be beautiful and lovely, labour to be holy. The natural beauty of Sarah, Kebekah, Rachel, Joseph, and Absalom, was no beauty to that beauty, lustre, and glory that holiness puts upon a man. Deme- trius, saith Plutarch, was so passing fair of face and countenance, that no painter was able to draw him.i Holiness puts so rare a beauty upon man, that no painter under heaven is able to draw him. Scipio Africanus was so comely a person, that the barbarians in Spain stood amazed at his comeliness. Mark vi. 20, Holiness puts such a comeli- ness, and such an amiableness upon a person, that many admire it, and stand amazed at it. 0 sirs, as ever you would be amiable and desirable, be holy ; as ever you would be lovely and comely, be holy ; as ever you would be famous and glorious, be holy ; as ever you would outshine the sun in splendour and glory, labour to be holy. Many have ventured their names, their estates, their liberties, their lives, yea, their very souls, to enjoy a lovely Bathsheba, a fair Helena, a beautiful Diana, a comely Cleopatra, &c., whose beauties have been but clay well coloured.^ Oh, how much more, then, should you be pro- voked to labour and venture your all for holiness, that will imprint upon you that most excellent and most exquisite beauty, that will to the grave and to glory with you, yea, that will render you not only amiable and excellent in the eyes of men, but also lovely and comely in the eyes of God ! I remember Bernard, writing to a noble virgin that was holy, tells her that others were clothed with purple and silk, but their consciences were poor and beggarly ; they glistered with their jewels, but were loose in their manners; but you, saith he, are without meanly clad, but within shine exceeding beautiful, not to human, but to divine eyes, Ps. xlv. 13, 14. Both in the eyes of God, angels, and men, none shine and glister so gloriously as those that are holy, Ezek. xvi. 1, 12. Unholy souls are foul souls, ugly souls, de-
' Plutarch, in the life of Demetrius.
* David, Theseus, Prince Paris, Mark Antony, &c.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 173
formed souls, withered souls, wrinkled souls; they are altogether unlovely and uncomely souls. I have read of Acco, an old woman, who seeing her deformity in a glass, run mad. Should God but shew unholy men their deformity in the glass of the law, it would either make them spiritually mad, or else it would make them fall in love with holiness, that so they might be made comely and lovely by being made pure and holy. But,