Page:History of Joseph and his brethren.pdf/21

21 unfitly be referred. We shall therefore make some enquiry into the time and occasion of the several epistles wrote to the several churches ; as also unto the time and manner of his death, and so proceed to the lives of the rest of the apostles.

When he went from Athens to Corinth, it is said he wrote his first epistle to the Thessalonians, which he sent Silas and. Timothy, who returned during his stay, and before his departure he wrote his second epistle to them, to excuse his not coming to them as he promised in his first. Not long after at Ephesus, he is said to write his epistle to the Galatians ; and before he left Ephesus, he wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians. Moreover, be sent from thence by Apollos and Silas to Titus, whom be left in that Island to propagate the faith, and had made him bishop thereof, in which he gives him advice for the better execution of his episcopal office. At Macedonia, whether he went from Ephesus, having by Titus received an account of the church of Corinth's present state of affairs, he sent by him at his return, when he was accompanied by St. Luke, his second epistle to the Corinthians ; and about the same time he wrote his first epistle to Timothy, whom he had left at Ephesus. From Corinth he went for Macedon, whether he sent his Epistle to the Romans, by Phobee, a deaconess of the Church of Cenchrea, not far from Corinth. Going thence to Rome, he sent his Epistle to the Phillippians by Epaproditus, who had been sent from them with relief, not knowing to what st eights he might be reduced by his imprisonment at Rome. In the next place, he sends by Tychicus his epistle to the Ephesians. Not long after, (if not, about the same time), he wrote his epistle to the Colossians, and sent it by Epaphias his fellow-prisoner for some time at Rome. As for his second epistle to Timothy, there is some dispute about the time of his writing it ; only it seems probable by authentic authors, that it was writ after the Philippians and Ephesians. As for the epistle to the Hebrews, it is not known when, or from whence written, and rather conjectured than certainly known to have been St. Pauls. Tertulliah judgeth it to be written by Barnabas ; but the most received opinion is, that it was St. Pauls but written by