of the Lord, we take over the holy heart and spiritual affections of regeneration, and there is no change but that of progression,—­a change, consequently, only in degree, but none of kind or type.  The same knowledge and experience that we have here “in part” we shall have there in completeness and permanency.  And the same will be true, if the heart be evil and the affections inordinate and earthly.  And all this, simply because the mind’s knowledge is clear, accurate, and constant.  That which the transgressor knows here of God and his own heart, but imperfectly, and fitfully, and briefly, he shall know there perfectly, and constantly, and everlastingly.  The law of constant evolution, and the characteristic of unvarying uniformity, will determine and fix the type of experience in the evil as it does in the good.

Such, then, is the general nature of knowledge in the future state.  It is distinct, accurate, unintermittent, and unvarying.  We shall know even as we are known, and we are known by the omniscient and unerring Searcher of hearts.  Let us now apply this general characteristic of cognition in eternity to some particulars.  Let us transfer our minds into the future and final state, and mark what goes on within them there.  We ought often to enter this mysterious realm, and become habituated to its mental processes, and by a wise anticipation become prepared for the reality itself.

I. The human mind, in eternity, will have a distinct and unvarying perception of the character of God.  And that one particular attribute in this character, respecting which the cognition will be of the most luminous quality, is the Divine holiness.  In eternity, the immaculateness of the Deity will penetrate the consciousness of every rational creature with the subtlety and the thoroughness of fire.  God’s essence is infinitely pure, and intensely antagonistic to sin, but it is not until there is a direct contact between it and the human mind, that man understands it and feels it.  “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee, and I abhor myself.”  Even the best of men know but “in part” concerning the holiness of God.  Yet it is noticeable how the apprehension of it grows upon the ripening Christian, as he draws nearer to the time of his departure.  The vision of the cherubim themselves seems to dawn upon the soul of a Leighton and an Edwards, and though it does not in the least disturb their saintly and seraphic peace, because they are sheltered in the clefts of the Rock of Ages, as the brightness passes by them, it does yet bring out from their comparatively holy and spiritual hearts the utterance, “Behold I am vile; infinite upon, infinite is my sin.”  But what shall be said of the common and ordinary knowledge of mankind, upon this subject!  Except at certain infrequent times, the natural man does not know even “in part,” respecting the holiness of God, and hence goes on in transgression without anxiety or terror.  It is the very first work of prevenient grace, to disclose to the human mind something of the Divine purity; and whoever, at any moment, is startled by a more than common sense of God’s holy character, should regard it and cherish it as a token of benevolence and care for his soul.