ection of the captivating, but
absurd, idolatrous opinions of his contemporaries, and at the
recognition of a unique supreme Cause of all things, omnipotent,
all-wise and holy, that governs all with impartial justice and infinite
mercy. The nobility of his sentiments led him to labour and exert
himself in the diffusion of these holy notions wherever he found
himself; and he was most sedulous in drawing the attention of men to
that which most concerned their spiritual life. An unparalleled
cordiality towards not only his own friends, but all who approached him;
a self-abnegation, carried to the point of refusing the best deserved
remuneration; a humility ready to waive any right of his own in order to
support that of others; a hospitality full, generous, unasked; a
continual exercise of charity and justice, which had become in him a
second nature; in fine, a submission of all himself and his dearest to
the will of God,--such was the character of that celebrated luminary of
antiquity, of that man truly divine, of that exemplar of sublime virtue.

LVI. Although so many pre-eminent merits indisputably assigned to him
the distinction we have pointed out, yet the Divine wisdom decided to
subject his constancy to various trials, with the view of making
manifest to the world the excellence of that virtuous character, and the
justice which dictated the choice. In the continual antagonism between
the material and spiritual interests involved in the events of his
agitated life, he had opportunities to display the noblest firmness in
causing the latter to prevail. Involuntary peregrinations, conflicts
with foreign potentates, domestic discords, dangers, hazards, hopes
deferred, and promises well nigh forgotten, became to him so many
occasions for the exercise of the highest virtues: and last, the holy
resignation with which he prepared to immolate his beloved son, thinking
thereby to respond to a Divine bidding, raised his glory to an
unapproachable summit. If the other deeds of his edifying piety caused
him to be appointed a herald of the true religion, this last heroic act
brought down upon him the greatest blessing, in the shape of a promise,
that even to his remotest posterity would be extended the mission of
jealously preserving the revealed truths, and effectually cooperating in
their propagation, so that through that posterity would be _blessed all
the families of the earth._

LVII. Abraham's vocation marks a luminous a