Let us hear Clarke explain how these christians were scarcely saved.  “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”  “It is very remarkable that not a single christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, though there were many there when Cestius Gallus invested the city; and had he persevered in the siege, he would soon have rendered himself master of it; but when he unexpectedly and unaccountably raised the siege, the christians took that opportunity to escape.”  Clarke says “unto the end” means “to the destruction of the Jewish polity.”  Therefore when Peter says, the righteous are scarcely saved, he had reference to the dreadful judgment which was coming upon “the wicked and ungodly” inhabitants of Jerusalem for shedding the blood of the righteous, and from this destruction the christians escaped with their lives in their hands to the mountains of Judea for safety as Jesus had directed them.  They but just escape—­ they were scarcely saved.

The christians also suffered persecution from the Jews; and Peter draws this inference from it—­If we, who obey the gospel of God, have to endure so many persecutions from the Jews—­if this judgment begins at us, how much sorer punishment will our enemies have to endure, who obey not the gospel of God?  And if we the righteous are scarcely saved from this long-predicted destruction, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?  But how did Peter know that it was at hand?  Because the persecutions, which Jesus had given them as a “sign” or “token” had then commenced at the house of God.  The reader will now perceive that Peter was not speaking of a judgment at the end of time, because the judgment of which he was speaking had then commenced—­“The time is come.”  Neither was he speaking of christians generally, nor of salvation in the future world; but of those christians only who lived previous to the destruction of the Jewish polity, and of their being saved with difficulty by watching the signs and fleeing to the mountains of Judea as Jesus had forewarned them.

Luke records the language of Christ more plainly to be comprehended than that of Matthew.  “In your patience possess ye your souls.  And when ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.  Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out,” &c.  We should be led to suppose that, after the walls of the city were surrounded by an army, it would then have been too late for the christians to save themselves.  But Christ as a prophet knew that Cestius Gallus would raise the siege, and fall back to make preparations for a more decisive attack, and thus afford the christians an opportunity to escape.  It is evident to every candid reader that Luke expresses in chap. 21st, all that Matthew does in chap 24th and 25th.  And that Luke does not refer to a judgment