Abaris. See Abarim ; Avaris.
Abauzit, Firmin, a French Unitarian, was born at I'/.cs, in Languedoc, Nov. 11, 1G79. Though his mother was a Protestant, he was forcibly placed in a Roman Catholic seminary, to be educated as a Papist. His mother succeeded in recovering him, and placed him at school in Geneva. At nineteen he travelled into Holland and England, and became the friend of Bayle and Newton. Returning to Geneva, he ren- dered important assistance to a society engaged in preparing a translation of the New Testament into French (published in 1726). In 1727 he was appointed public librarian in Geneva, and was presented with
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the freedom of the city. He died at Geneva, March 20, 1767. Though not a copious writer, he was a man of great reputation in his day, both in philosophy and theology. Newton declared him " a fit man to judge ; between Leibnitz and himself." Rousseau describes him as the '"wise and modest Abauzit," and Voltaire pronounced him " a great man." His knowledge was extensive in the whole circle of antiquities, in ancient history, geography, and chronology. His manuscripts were burned after his death by his relatives at Uzes, who had become Romanists ; his printed works are collected, in part, in (Euvres Diverses de Firmin Abauzit (Amsterdam, 1773, 2 vols.). Many of his theological writings arc contained in a volume entitled Misct lla- nies on Historical, Theological, and Critical Subjects, transl. by E. Harwood, U.D. (Lond. 1774, 8vo). A list of his works is given by Haag, La France Protes- tanie, i, 3. See, also, Hoefer, Biog. Generale, i, 38.
Ab'ba ('A/3/35, N3X) is the Hebrew word ^fa- ther, under a form (the "emphatic" or definite state —the father) peculiar to the Chaldee idiom (Mark xiv, 36 ; Rom. viii, 15 ; Gal. iv, 6).
1. As such, it was doubtless in common use to express the paternal relation, in the mixed Aramaean dialect of Palestine, during the New Testament age. Especially would it be naturally employed from infancy in ad- dressing the male parent, like the modern papa ; hence its occurrence in the New Testament only as a vocative (Winer, Gram, of the New-Test. Diction, § 29). Its reference to God (comp. Jer. iii, 4; John viii, 41) was common among the later Jews (Hamburger, ReaU Encyklop. s. v.). To guard against the appearance of too great familiarity, however, the writers of the Newj Testament, instead of translating the title into its j Greek equivalent, ttu-ku, have retained it in its foreign form — one of emphasis and dignity ; but they have in ' all cases added its meaning, for the convenience of their merely Greek readers. Hence the phrase "Abba, I father" in its two-fold form (Critica Biblica, ii, 445). I
2. Through faith in Christ all true Christians pass j into the relation of sons ; are permitted to address God j ■with filial confidence in prayer ; and to regard them- J selves as heirs of the heavenly inheritance. This adoption into the family of God inseparably follows our justification ; and the power to call God our Father, in this special and appropriativc sense, results from the inward testimony of our forgiveness given by the Holy Spirit. See Adoption.
3. The word Abba in after ages came to be used in the Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic churches, in an im- proper sense, as a title given to their bishops (D'Her- belot, Bibl. Orient, s. v.), like padre, etc., in Roman Catholic countries. The bishops themselves bestow the title Abba more eminently upon the Bishop of Alexandria; which gave occasion for the people to call him Baba, or Papa, that is, grandfather — a title which he bore before the Bishop of Rome.
Abbadie, James, born in 1654, at Nay, in Beam, studied at Saumur and Sedan. His proficiency was so early and so great, that at seventeen he received the title of D.D. from the Academy at Sedan. In 1676 he accepted an invitation from the Elector of Branden- burg, and was for some time pastor of the French Protestant church at Berlin. The French congrega- tion at Berlin was at first but thin ; but upon the rev- ocation of the edict of Nantes great numbers of the exiled Protestants retired to Brandenburg, where they were received with the greatest humanity ; so that Dr. Abbadie had in a little time a great charge, of which he took all possible care; and, by his interest at court, did many services to his distressed country- men. The Elector dying in 1688, Abbadie accepted a proposal from Marshal Schomberg to go with him to Holland, and afterward to England with the Prince of Orange. In the autumn of 1689 he accompanied the Marshal to Ireland, where he continued till after the
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Battle of the Boyne, in 1609, in which his great patron was killed. This occasioned his return to London, where he was appointed minister of the French church in the Savoj\ Some years after, he was made Dean of Killaloe, in Ireland, and died at London, 1727. His chief work is his Traile de la Verite de la Religion Chre- tknne (Rotterd. 1692, 2 vols. 12mo), which has passed through several editions, and has been translated into several languages (in English, Lond. 1694-8, 2 vols. 8vo), Madame de Se vigne called it "the most charm- ing of books ;" and, though written by a Protestant, it found just favor among French Romanists, and even at the court of Louis XIV. His other principal writ- ings are : Reflexions sur la Presence du Corps de Jesus Christ dans V Eucharistie ; Les Caracteres du Chretien ct du Christianisme ; Traite de la Divinite de Notre Seigneur Jesus Christ; E Art de se connaitre (Rotterd. 1692, translated into different languages) ; La Verite de la Religion Reformee (Rotterd. 1718, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Le Triomphe de la Providence et de la Religion, an explana- tion of a portion of the Apocalypse (Amst. 1723, 4 vols. 12mo); Accomplishment of Prophecy in Christ (Lond. new ed. 1840, 12mo). A full list of his writings is given by Haag, La France Proteslante, i, 7. — Hoefer, Biog. Generale, i, 38.