Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Ver. 2. Through sanctification unto obedience] To the means as well as to the end, to sanctification as well as to salvation. Some there be (saith Mr Philpot in an epistle of his to the congregation) that for an extreme refuge in their evil doings, run to God's election, saying, If I be elected I shall be saved, whatever I do. But such be great tempters of God, and abominable blasphemers of his holy election; these cast themselves down from the pinnacle of the temple in presumption, that God may preserve them by his angels through predestination. God's election ought to be with a simple eye considered, to make us more warily walk according to his word, and not set cock in the hoop, and put all on God's back, to do wickedly at large. Thus he.
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied] πληθυνθειη, or, enlarged to the utmost, filled up and accomplished. He prays for further measures, that they might be past the spoon and get to a well grown, fully grown age in Christ, Ephesians 4:13, until they came to be fathers, gray headed, experienced Christians, such as the Psalmist speaketh of, Psalms 90:12,14 .