Prufrock
Arbitrary Moderation
While thinking about 1 John 3:2-3, I was reminded of a wonderful passage from Edward Elton:
Hence we may take up this conclusion, that true Christian hope, or the hope of true Christians, must not only have reference to life eternal, but it must be a resemblance of life hoped for, and in some sort be correspondent unto it: for as in metonymical and sacramental speeches, when one thing is set down to signify another, there is a resemblance and similitude between those things, as the bread in the Sacrament resembleth the body of Chist; so our hope being put for heaven, it must be a resemblance of heaven, it must in some sort express eternal life laid up for us in heaven. How can that be, may some say? Answer: By working in us even in this life a beginning of life eternal, by making our life and conversation heavenly, or as the Apostle speaks, "in heaven," Phil. 3:20: then is our hope a lively image fit to resemble life eternal, when it is manifested in the beginnings of life eternal... (An Exposition of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Colossians, 1620; p. 28)
