By elect he means, either:
1. Singled out of the world, and separated unto God in their effectual calling, as 1 Corinthians 1:1; those that are said to be called, 1 Corinthians 1:26, are said to be chosen, 1 Corinthians 1:27,28; and so the word seems to be taken, James 2:5: or:
2. Chosen to salvation, and the means of it, in God's eternal decree, Ephesians 1:4 2 Thessalonians 2:13. According to the foreknowledge; either:
1. The Divine preordination, or decree of election, as the word is taken, 1 Peter 1:20, and then we may take elect in the first sense; men are chosen out of the world, or called in time, according as they were chosen from eternity, Romans 8:30: or: 2. Foreknowledge here is as much as approbation or love, Matthew 7:25 Romans 11:2; and so signifies the free favour and good will of God, which is the fountain from whence the decree of election proceeds; and then we are to take elect in the latter sense, and so elect according to the foreknowledge of God, is, eternally designed unto life, according to, or out of, that free grace and love God did from eternity bear to them, which was the only motive he had for his choosing them: or, (which comes to the same), by foreknowledge we may understand election itself, as it is in God; and by election, the same, as terminated in the creature, and executed in effectual calling. Of God the Father; this doth not exclude the Son or Spirit from their interest in and concurrence to the Divine decree, but only notes the order of working among the three Persons in the affair of man's salvation; election is ascribed to the Father, reconciliation to the Son, and sanctification to the Spirit. Through sanctification: sanctification seems to be taken in a large sense, for the whole change of our spiritual state, both as to real grace in regeneration, and relative in justification; so that God may then be said to sanctify us, when in our effectual calling he justifies us from our sins, and renews us unto obedience: so it is taken, Hebrews 10:10. Of the Spirit; this is to be understood rather of the Spirit of God, the efficient of sanctification, than the spirit or soul of man, the subject of it. Unto obedience; either:
1. The obedience of Christ to God; and then the sense is, elect, or ordained to be, by the sanctification of the Spirit, made partakers of the benefits of Christ's obedience: or:
2. The obedience of believers to Christ, and that either in their believing, faith being a giving obedience to the great command of the gospel, 1 Thessalonians 6:29, and particularly called obedience, Romans 1:5; and then the sense runs thus, elect unto faith, which was to be wrought in you by the sanctification of the Spirit: or else in the exercise of holiness, which is the fruit of faith; and then it signifies the same as Ephesians 1:4, chosen, that you might be made, by the sanctification of the Spirit, holy and unblamable, and might accordingly demean yourselves. And sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; an allusion to the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices under the law, Hebrews 9:13,14,20-22 Heb 12:24; it signifies the application of the blood of Christ for the purging of the conscience, (which was typified by those legal sprinklings), especially from the guilt of sin; which sprinkling, or application of the blood of Christ to our consciences, is performed on our part by faith, on God's part by his Spirit working that faith in us (as well as enabling us unto obedience) in our effectual calling, as likewise by God's imputing Christ's righteousness to us; and so the sense of the whole is: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, to be by the sanctification of the Spirit brought into the participation of all the benefits of Christ's redemption; the sum of which consists in the renovation of your natures unto gospel obedience, and the justification of your persons. Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied; there being several kinds of grace, 1 Peter 4:10, and several kinds of peace, outward and inward, he wisheth them all kinds of each; and there being several degrees and measures of both, he prays for an increase of these degrees in them, and so a multiplication of all good, both temporal and spiritual, to them.