vers. Servants in obedience towards their Masters, to the end of the chapter. Wives in their subjection to their husbands, from the beginning of the third chapter to the seventh verse. Husbands in their duty towards their wives, vers.7. Brethren in their duty towards their brethren, vers.8. The afflicted towards their persecutors, from the 9 vers. to the beginning of the 5 chap. The Elders towards their Churches, from the beginning of the 5 chap. to the 5. verse. The younger towards their elders, at the beginning of the 5. vers. and finally, all both towards others and towards themselves, to the 10 vers. where the whole foregoing exhortation is turned into a short prayer which serves for a forcible conclusion of the whole Epistle.
To the Epistle it selfe there belong two common adjuncts. An Inscription, vers.1,2. A Subscription, in the three last. In the Inscription there is contained, according to the usuall manner of Epistles, a holy salutation, shewing first, by whom this Epistle was written, secondly, to whom, thirdly, with what minde or affection it was written unto them; which is set forth by that pious wish, wherein he wisheth unto them the greatest good, Grace and Peace. In the person writing, and the good wished there are all things the same with those that are spoken of in the second Epistle. But the description of the persons to whom it was written, is something fuller here then there; now they are described, first by their outward condition, strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Asia, Galatia, Cappadocia. Secondly, by their inward spirituall condition, which is set forth, 1. by the fundamentall cause of it, Election, to wit, of God, 2. by the finall cause, Sanctification. 3. by the subservient cause. Reconciliation, to wit, conferred in obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Iesus Christ: which three causes of our sanctification are set forth by the three persons of the Deity, to whom as to the authors thereof they are distinctly ascribed, Election to God the father, Sanctification to the holy Spirit, Reconciliation to Jesus Christ. By the strangers scattered, to whom this Epistle is chiefly directed, we are to understand the Jewes, together with the other Israelites, who did imbrace the faith. for Iames, Iohn and Peter, discharged their Apostleship amongst the circumcised Israe-
