them to bow to the reign of Jesus Christ, who was King of kings, and Lord of lords.  They proclaimed a religion so contrary to the partial notions of the Jews and the traditions of the Elders, that it began at length to meet with violent opposition.  The disciples agreeably to the direction of Jesus fled for safety from city to city, till the tumult and opposition became general.  Christianity gathered force and popularity so rapidly, that the Romans, it appears, gave permission to the Jews to imprison and take life.  The disciples and christians had now no place of safety to flee to, from the gathering storm of persecution and death.  Amidst these disastrous scenes, Peter called to mind the warnings and signs his risen Lord had pointed out as a solemn premonition that the destruction of Jerusalem and of their persecutors, was nigh at hand, and in view of the approaching calamity over which Jesus wept, Peter exclaims, “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it begin first at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” Thus we, see that what is meant by judgment beginning at the house of God, is persecution beginning at the christians, which persecution was a sign to them that the destruction of that nation was nigh at hand.  The reader will perceive that what the apostle calls “house of God,” he afterwards calls “us,” in the same sentence, and must refer to the christians, who are in many scriptures called the house, temple, and building of God. [See Heb. iii:6.  Eph. ii:21, 22.] That the persecutions were stated by Christ as a sign of the impending judgment of God upon the Jews, is evident from the words of Paul, 2 Thess. i:5, where he calls them “a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God” upon the unbelieving Jews, the persecutors of the christians.

Second—­Who were the righteous, and in what sense they were scarcely saved.  The righteous, mentioned in the 18th verse, mean the same persons called “the house of God,” and “us,” in verse 17th, and has reference to those christians only, who lived previous to the destruction of the temple, and not to any christians that lived subsequent to that event, much less does it refer to all the righteous that have ever existed or shall hereafter exist, as common opinion asserts.

Under this head, we were also to show in what sense these righteous were scarcely saved.  It could not mean that their salvation in the future world was scarce or uncertain; for it is certain in the counsels of God, and in all things well ordered and sure.  He has given to his Son the heathen for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession.  And all the Father hath given him shall come unto him, and he will raise them up the last day.  He is mighty to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; and no