The following Work has been the amusement of the Author's leisure hours, more or many years. His design was — not to accumulate a mass of learning (if he had either ability or Opportunity for the task,) — but having consulted all the sources of information conveniently within his reach, and drawn his own conclusions, to lay before the reader a simple and consistent narrative. It was more particularly his aim to illustrate the Epistles by an explanation of the circumstances under which they were written. It was not his intention originally to insert the Epistles themselves, but it was found unavoidable. However, he has refrained from annotation, with the exception of a few observations occasionally interspersed.