De politia judaica, tam civili quam ecclesiastica, jam inde a suis primordiis, hoc est ab orbe condito, repetita

at last, after suggesting the most wicked counsel to the Moabites, he is deservedly called a diviner by Moses, and he paid the deserved penalties for his malice.

While the Chaldeans joined the idolomanias of their kings to the genuine worship of God, the Lord, having pity on Abraham, calls him out from the midst of those idolatries, declares that he will be the father of the promised Seed, and strikes a solemn covenant with him.

Gen. 12, &c. When Abraham had entered the land of Canaan, which had been designated and destined for him, and could safely return to the genuine worship of God, he began to do so in such a way that he himself was the priest of his family at home, and for the various stations of his pilgrimage, he erected various shrines or altars of that divine worship which he frequented, at which he invoked the name of God; that is (if one wishes), he celebrated the entirety of the worship of God, which comes under the name of prayer and the invocation of the name of God, as well as adoration, Gen. 22:5.

When, however, Abraham had settled at the grove or oak-wood of Mamre, he designated a shrine and an altar there for the regular assemblies of his family.

That Abraham offered sacrifices appears from Gen. 15:9 and 22:2, 7, 9, and 13.

That Abraham taught appears from Gen. 18:19, and that he was therefore a prophet from Gen. 20:7.