SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIAN S 167 



it follows that the epistle is authentic. And of the reality 

 of this conversation it appears to be a proof, that what is 

 paid in the epistle might be understood by those who had 

 been present at such conversation, and yet be incapable of 

 being explained by any other. JNTo man writes unintelligibly 

 on purpose. But it may easily happen, that a part of a 

 letter which relates to a subject upon which the parties had 

 conversed together before, which refers to what had been 

 before said, which is in truth a portion or continuation of a 

 former discourse, may be utterly without meaning to a 

 stranger who should pick up the letter upon the road, and 

 yet be perfectly clear to the person to whom it is directed, 

 and with whom the previous communication had passed. 

 And if, in a letter which thus accidentally fell into my 

 hands, I found a passage expressly referring to a former 

 conversation, and difficult to be explained without knowing 

 that conversation, I should consider this very difficulty as a 

 proof that the conversation had actually passed, and conse- 

 quently that the letter contained the real correspondence of 

 real persons. 



II. Chap. 3 : 8, 9 : " Neither did we eat any man's bread 

 for naught ; but wrought with labor and travail night and 

 day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you : not 

 because we have not power, but to make ourselves an en 

 sample unto you to follow us." 



In a letter purporting to have been written to another of 

 the Macedonian churches, we find the followang declaration 



" Now ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning 

 of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, qio church 

 commu?iicated ivith me, as concerning giving anxl rcceiv 

 i7ig, hut ye only.'*' 



The conformity between these two passages is strong and 

 plain. They confine the transaction to the same period. 

 The epistle to the Philippians refers to what passed "in the 

 beginning of the gospel,"' that is to say, during the first 

 preaching of the gospel on that side of the ^gean sea 



