2. the Unity of Heaven's Ways, Etc

Or, again, we may look at heaven in the various displays of it. For there is not only a unity that we trace in "heaven as it was," "heaven as it is," and "heaven as it shall be" - a blessed unity in Him who is God; and a blessed unity in His counsels; in His plans; in His work; in His objects.- But, also, while the counsel, plan, work, and purpose are but one, there is such a marvelous variety in the, ordering of the plan itself, as cannot be passed by unnoticed.
The purpose was, that God should be all in all (1 Cor. 15) That is, as I understand it, that in heaven above, and on earth beneath, in spite of all that Satan has done and tried to do, the name of God shall be permanently stamped everywhere, on everything, in heaven above, and on earth beneath; while all that will not bow, all that will not bear and wear that glory, shall be circumscribed to the place prepared for the devil and his angels.
It may be, that in heaven above, God shall be all in all, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and that in earth, God shall be all in all, as Jehovah-Elohim-Shaddai, Messiah, and the Spirit. But the time shall come, when, neither in heaven above, nor in earth beneath (in the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness), shall there be anything and any one not fully subject to the display of divine glory. Each thing and each person in their respective spheres and characters of glory; but God all in all.
If, leaving aside, for the moment, the peculiar displays which God means to make of His glory in connection with man, we consider broadly what has been shown out among men upon earth, as having been characteristic of what was in heaven, we shall see a gradually increasing light about heaven; and not only so, but certain elements introduced, or to be introduced, which justify our speaking of heaven as it was; heaven as it is; and heaven as it will be.
Creation gave a plain token of God's presence, and of the beneficence of the eternal power and Godhead of the God of heaven. In His visit to man after the fall, He did more; in his clothing and driving man out of Eden; in His acceptance of Abel's lamb and rejection of Cain and his fruits, and in His replacing Cain by Seth; in His dealings with Enoch and with Noah, with Abraham and Lot, according to a call given; in His separation of
Israel as a nation, to be the central nation to Himself upon earth, with the other nations grouped round it; in His redemption of that nation; in the Mediatorship, priesthood, tabernacle, kingly glory, temple, prophetic office; in the power put into the hands of four nations, to oppress the people of the Lord in the land which belonged to Him; in the fact of the incarnation and tabernacling in flesh of His Son; and, when Israel and the Gentiles rejected Him, His forming a Church on earth, and revealing a heavenly tabernacle and heavenly hopes;-in all these things we see, as the stream widens, how the subjects connected with the interests of heaven become more plain. And in the Lord descending hereafter to cleanse the heavenly places, and have His bride there, while all the heads and substance and powers which are now at work on earth, are to be put down under the Son of man in His reign, until (after the final apostasy) He abolishes death, and brings in the divine glory-we see the still wider stream in all its perfectness. All this speaks of the God of heaven, and tells of the counsels and plans of heaven.