This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
Ver. 1. Perilous times] Gr. καιροι χαλεποι, hard times. Hard hearts make hard times. Eiusmodi tempera descripsit (saith Casaubon of Tacitus, and the same may we say of St Paul) quibus nulla unquam aut virtutum steriliora, aut virtutibus inimiciora; he describeth these last and loosest times of the world, barren of virtues, but abounding with vices. There was never any but Noah, that with two faces saw both before and behind. But that Ancient of days, to whom all things are present, hath here told us that the last shall be the worst.