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SECT. XVI.
AND now we can trace this great Apostle Paul no further by any light the Scripture hath left us. Some learned men indeed hold, that (the two years being ended in which he was detained in Military custody, and taught the Doctrine of Christ at Rome) he preached the Gospel up and down in Italy; and from thence went into Spain and the Western parts. And some hold, that he went into Greece and Asia, where for five or six years he confirmed and established the Churches he had before planted in those Countreys, and then returned to Rome again; where, on the 29 of June, in the 13 year of Nero, he was beheaded. Chrysostom in his 26 Hom. on 2 Cor. says, The day of his death was more certainly known than that of Alexander the Great. Vid. Ʋsserii Annales. But others think, that after his writing his second Epistle to Timothy (about which time it seems he had warning that his departure was at hand, 2 Tim. 4.6, 7, 8.), 'tis impossible to find out by any Scripture-light, what became of him; and 'tis no fault to be ignorant of that which God hath not thought fit to have revealed to us. Indeed he mentions in his Epistle to the Romans, ch. 15.24, his desire and intent to go and preach in Spain. But it seems he saw cause to change his resolution. For it appears that when he wrote his Epistle to the Hebrews, he intended very shortly (if Timothy came to him from Ephesus) to go for Judea, Heb. 13.23; yea, to go to Philippi [Phil. ch. 2. v. 24.] and to Coloss [Philem. v. 22.]. Possibly the apostacy and wa∣vering he heard of in the Eastern Churches, caused him to think it more needful to go thither, than to go Westward. He expe∣cted indeed Timothy to come to him again to Rome; but whe∣ther they ever met and travelled together again, or what fur∣ther became of either of them, we cannot from any thing the Scripture hath left us, certainly determine.