is servants, otherwise he
should have been hindered from his obedience to God; and he took Isaac,
together with two of his servants, and laying what things were necessary
for a sacrifice upon an ass, he went away to the mountain. Now the two
servants went along with him two days; but on the third day, as soon as
he saw the mountain, he left those servants that were with him till
then in the plain, and, having his son alone with him, he came to the
mountain. It was that mountain upon which king David afterwards built
the temple. [28] Now they had brought with them every thing necessary
for a sacrifice, excepting the animal that was to be offered only. Now
Isaac was twenty-five years old. And as he was building the altar, he
asked his father what he was about to offer, since there was no animal
there for an oblation:--to which it was answered, "That God would
provide himself an oblation, he being able to make a plentiful provision
for men out of what they have not, and to deprive others of what they
already have, when they put too much trust therein; that therefore, if
God pleased to be present and propitious at this sacrifice, he would
provide himself an oblation."

3. As soon as the altar was prepared, and Abraham had laid on the wood,
and all things were entirely ready, he said to his son, "O son, I poured
out a vast number of prayers that I might have thee for my son; when
thou wast come into the world, there was nothing that could contribute
to thy support for which I was not greatly solicitous, nor any thing
wherein I thought myself happier than to see thee grown up to man's
estate, and that I might leave thee at my death the successor to my
dominion; but since it was by God's will that I became thy father, and
it is now his will that I relinquish thee, bear this consecration to God
with a generous mind; for I resign thee up to God who has thought fit
now to require this testimony of honor to himself, on account of the
favors he hath conferred on me, in being to me a supporter and defender.
Accordingly thou, my son, wilt now die, not in any common way of going
out of the world, but sent to God, the Father of all men, beforehand, by
thy own father, in the nature of a sacrifice. I suppose he thinks thee
worthy to get clear of this world neither by disease, neither by war,
nor by any other severe way, by which death usually comes upon men,
but so that he will receive thy soul with prayers and holy offices of
religion,