Palestine obliged him to go down to Egypt, the land of corn. Returning thence with a great augmentation of wealth, Abraham once more pitched his tent in Canaan. As his nephew had also become a man of extensive possessions, strife arose between their respective herdsmen about wells and pastures, which suggested the propriety of a separation. Lot chose the well-watered plain where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, and Abraham therefore moved towards the plain of Mamre in Hebron. Shortly after his settlement here, intelligence was brought to him of an incursion which had been made upon the cities of the plain, by the combined forces of several neighbouring kings, in which his nephew and all his family had been carried away captive. Without a moment's hesitation, he armed the servants of his family, amounting to 318; and, aided by some friendly neighbours, he pursued the enemy, attacked them by night, and defeated them. Lot and his family were brought back in safety, and all the c aptives were restored to liberty.
While Abraham dwelt in Mamre, the promises already given to him were repeated and confirmed. Yet, amid all references to his numerous seed, he was still childless, though at the advanced age of seventy-five. This apparent incongruity seems to have suggested to Sarah the idea of giving him as a wife her handmaid Hagar. Accordingly Ishmael was born, and for many years considered as the child of promise. At length, however, when Abraham was in his ninety-ninth year, another most remarkable vision was granted to him. He was assured that he was to be the father of many nations, and it was now the change of his name took place from Abram (Exalted father), to Abraham (Father of a multitude). Circumcision was appointed as a sign of the covenant made with him and his posterity. He was told, too, that Ishmael was not the child in whom the promises were to be fulfilled, but that Sarah herself should bear him a son.
At length Isaac was born, and Ishmael with his mother Hagar, was, at Sarah's request, cast out from the family circle. As the promise of God regarding the birth of Isaac had furnished an occasion for the display of Abraham's faith, so when this child of promise grew up to be a young man, he was made the means of a far severer trial of it. The patriarch was commanded to take his son, and to offer him up as a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains of Moriah. Abraham hesitated not. For three days the father and the son journeyed together to the appointed place. The altar was set up, the wood was cleft and arranged, Isaac was bound, and the knife of sacrifice was already grasped, when a voice from heaven arrested the father's arm. The patriarch's faith was rewarded with a renewal, in a more explicit and extended form, of all the promises already given to him.
After Sarah's death, which took place when she was 127 years old, Abraham despatched one of his servants for a wife to Isaac, from among the daughters of his own people. He also himself married again, and had several sons, to whom he gave suitable portions, sending them away from the presence of Isaac. The patriarch at length died in the 175th year of his age, and was buried by Isaac and Ishmael in the same sepulchre with Sarah. His character is one of the most illustrious described in Scripture. Fervent piety, unshaken trust in God, generosity in his dealings with others, faithfulness in the instruction of his own household, and polite and courteous manners, are beautifully blended together in the "Father of the faithful."—W. L.
ABRAHAM BEN DIOR, or DAVID the Levite, a Spanish rabbi born at Toledo in 1166, author of a work entitled "The Book of Tradition," being a chronology and genealogy of the patriarchs, princes, and doctors of the Jews, from the creation to the year 1141. A Latin translation of it was printed at Paris in 1572. Died in 1180. Another Spanish rabbi of the same name, distinguished as the Younger, died about 1199.
ABRAHAM, Usque, a Portuguese Jew of the sixteenth century, who, along with Tobias Athias, translated the Old Testament into Spanish. The translation was printed at Ferrara in 1553, and dedicated to Renée of France, duchess of Ferrara. It is so literal as to be in many passages very obscure. Copies of it are now extremely rare.
ABRAHAM A SANCTA CLARA, an Augustine friar and celebrated preacher, born in Suabia in 1642. His great reputation procured him the appointment of chaplain to the imperial court of Vienna, where he continued to preach for forty years. He spoke with remarkable fluency, his delivery was fervid and energetic, and his discourses were full of sound sense, as well as fancy and eccentricity. Died in 1709.—E. M.
ABRAM, Nicholas, a learned jesuit, born in Lorraine in 1589. He was professor of divinity at Port-a-Mousson, and published several theological and literary works, but is best known as author of commentaries on the Æneid, and on some of Cicero's orations. Died in 1655.
ABRANTES, Don José, Marquis of, eldest son of Don Pedro, and representative of one of the most illustrious families in Portugal, was born at Abrantes castle in 1784. He entered the guards at an early age, and soon obtained the friendship and confidence of the prince regent. When, on the French invasion in 1807, the court retired from Portugal to Brazil, the old marquis of Abrantes was left president of the regency, soon afterwards dissolved by Marshal Junot, who, on arriving at Lisbon, began, in concert with Napoleon, to carry out his scheme of procuring for himself the crown of Portugal. Through Junot's influence, both the old and the young Abrantes were sent to France as members of a deputation from the Portuguese nobility, and the younger was detained there as a hostage till 1814. Entering zealously into the views of Queen Carlotta and her son Don Miguel, Don José took an active part in the counter-revolution of 1823, and in 1824 was one of the accomplices in the murder of the marquis of Loulé by that infamous prince. Banished from the kingdom, he took up his abode in Italy. When in 1826 a general amnesty for political offences was published, on the death of King John VI., he proceeded to Lisbon; but being refused permission to land, he retired to London, where he died of apoplexy on the 11th February, 1827.—E. M.
A´BRESCH, Frederick Louis, an eminent German Hellenist, born at Hess-Homberg in 1699. He studied Greek and Latin literature at Utrecht, under Duker and Drakenborg. He was principal, first of the college of Middleburg, and afterwards of that of Zwolle, where he died, at a very advanced age, in 1782. His critical writings are still highly esteemed.
ABRESCH, Peter, son of the preceding, and professor of theology at Göttingen. His works are more valuable for the interpretation of the New Testament than those of his father, especially his annotations on the first six chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
ABREU, Alexis, a Portuguese physician of the 17th century, wrote on the maladies most incident to people of high rank.
ABREU, Don Joseph Antonio, a learned Spanish jurist and laborious compiler of diplomatic documents, and translator of several standard works on international law; died in 1775.
ABREU, Don Felix Joseph, brother of the preceding, a Spanish diplomatist, author of a work on maritime law, born in 1722. He was Spanish envoy in London about 1760.
ABREU, Joam Manuel, a Portuguese mathematician, author of various geometrical treatises. Born 1754; died 1815.
ABRIAL, Andre-Joseph, Count d', a French lawyer and statesman, born in 1750. At the commencement of the Revolution—which he favoured—he was at the bar, after having been, as superintendent of a factory, at Senegal. Soon after the new judicial organization in 1791, he became state procurator-general in the Court of Cassation, and preserved that office through all the storms of the Revolution. In 1799 he was sent to Naples to organize the new government, a service he executed with great judgment. In 1800 he returned to Paris and became minister of justice, and in 1802 was created a senator. In 1814 he voted for Napoleon's dethronement, and, on the restoration of Louis XVIII., after the battle of Waterloo, was called to the chamber of peers. Died 1828.—E. M.
ABRIANI, Paul, an Italian professor, preacher, and author, born at Vicenza in 1607, died at Venice in 1699. Besides original productions, he published poetical translations of Lucan's "Pharsalia," and of a portion of Horace.
A´BRIL, Peter Simon, a learned and ingenious Spaniard of the sixteenth century, professor of Latin and Greek for twenty-five years, and afterwards professor of rhetoric, author of many valuable philological works. His writings and oral instructions greatly promoted a taste for classical literature in Spain.
ABSALOM (Father of peace) son of King David by Maacah, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, was noted for his singular personal beauty. To avenge the wrongs of his sister Tamar he slew his elder brother Amnon, for which he was exiled from the court. On the intercession of Joab he was restored to favour, but the royal clemency was ill repaid; for Absalom used every effort to subvert his father's authority, and at last became an open rebel. He was, however, subdued, and, contrary to the
