“Holiness is the very beauty and loveliness of Jehovah Himself. ‘Tis the excellency of His excellencies, the beauty of His beauties, the perfection of His infinite perfections, and the glory of His attributes. What an honor, then, must it be to a creature who is infinitely below God, and less than He, to be beautified and adorned with this beauty, with that beauty which is the highest beauty of God Himself, even holiness. The highest honor of angels is their holiness. ‘Tis astonishing that God should make even the angels, or any creature, in His own likeness, but how much more admirable is it that God should sanctify sinners– loathsome and abominable creatures– and make them like to Himself.”
–Jonathan Edwards, “God’s Excellencies” in Sermons and Discourses, 1720-1723: The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 10, ed. Wilson H. Kimnach (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959), 430.
Praise the Lord!