VER. 12—19. ST. LUKE. 677 signsthereshallbe from heaven. Behold the variableness oftheclimate,which must be ascribedto thosestorms which by no means regard the order of seasons. For the things which come in fixedorder are not signs. For everything thatwe receiveforthe use of lifewe pervertto the serviceof sin,but allthosethingswhich we have bent to a wicked use, areturned to the instrumentsof our punishment. AMBROSE. The ruin of the world then is preceded by certainof the world'scalamities,such as famine,pestilence,and persecu tion. THEOPHYL. Now some have wished to placethe fulfil ment of thesethingsnot only at the futureconsummation of tilthings,but at the time alsoof the takingof Jerusalem. For when the Author of peace was killed,then justlyarose among the Jews wars and sedition. But from wars proceed pestilenceand famine,the former indeed produced by the air infectedwith dead bodies,the latterthrough the lands re maining uncultivated. Josephus also relatesthe most in tolerabledistressesto have occurredfrom famine; and at the time ofClaudinsCaesartherewas a severefamine,as we read in the Acts, and many terribleeventshappened, foreboding,Acts11, as Josephus says,the destructionof Jerusalem. 28- CHRYS. But He says,that the end of the cityshallnot come immediately,thatis,the takingof Jerusalem,but there shallbe many battlesfirst.BEDE. The Apostles are also exhorted not to be alarmed by these forerunners,nor to desert Jerusalem and Judaea. But the kingdom against kingdom, and the pestilenceof thosewhose word creepeth as a cancer,and the famine of hearing the word of God, and the shaking of the whole earth,and the separationfrom the true faith,may be explainedalsoin the heretics,who contending one with another bring victoryto the Church. AMBROSE. There are alsoother wars which the Christian wages, the strugglesof differentlusts,and the conflictsof the will; and domestic foes are far more dangerous than foreign. 12. But beforeallthese,theyshalllaytheirhands on you, and persecuteyou, deliveringyou up to the synagogues, and into prisons,being brought before kings and rulersforMy name'ssake.