Among other things, all of which it would take too long to mention, Abraham was tested over the offering up of his beloved son Isaac, to prove his pious obedience, and so make it known to the world, not to God.⁠a Now not every testing is blameworthy; it may even be praiseworthy, because it provides proof. And, for the most part, the human mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its powers through testing, by questioning itself in experience and not merely in words; and then, if it has acknowledged the gift of God, it is pious, and is made firm by steadfast grace and not puffed up by vain boasting. Of course Abraham could never believe that God delighted in human sacrifices; yet when the divine commandment thundered, it was to be obeyed, not disputed. Yet Abraham is worthy of praise, because he all along believed that his son, on being offered up, would rise again; for God had said to him, when he was unwilling to fulfill his wife's pleasure by casting out the slave woman and her son, “In Isaac shall your seed be called.” No doubt He then goes on to say, “And as for the son of this slave woman, I will make him a great nation, because he is your seed.” Genesis 21:12-13 How then is it said “In Isaac shall your seed be called,” when God calls Ishmael also his seed? The apostle, in explaining this, says, “In Isaac shall your seed be called, that is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.” Romans 9:7-8 In order, then, that the children of the promise may be the seed of Abraham, they are called in Isaac, that is, are gathered together in Christ by the call of grace. Therefore the father, holding fast from the first the promise which had to be fulfilled through this son whom God had ordered him to kill, did not doubt that the son he had once thought it hopeless he would ever receive would be restored to him when he had offered him up. It is in this way the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews is also to be understood and explained. “By faith,” he says, “Abraham overcame, when tested over Isaac: and he who had received the promise offered up his only son, to whom it was said, In Isaac shall your seed be called: thinking that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;” therefore he has added, “from which he also received him as a likeness.” Hebrews 11:17-19 A likeness of whom, if not of Him of whom the apostle says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all?” Romans 8:32 And on this account Isaac also himself carried to the place of sacrifice the wood on which he was to be offered up, just as the Lord Himself carried His own cross. Finally, since Isaac was not to be killed, after his father was forbidden to strike him, who was that ram by the offering of which that sacrifice was completed with symbolic blood? For when Abraham saw him, he was caught by the horns in a thicket. What, then, did he represent but Jesus, who, before He was offered up, was crowned with thorns by the Jews? But let us rather hear the divine words spoken through the angel. For the Scripture says, “And Abraham stretched out his hand to take the knife, to kill his son. And the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. And he said, Do not lay your hand on the boy, or do anything to him: for now I know that you fear God, and have not spared your beloved son for my sake.” Genesis 22:10-12 It is said, “Now I know,” that is, Now I have made to be known; for God was not previously ignorant of this. Then, having offered up that ram instead of Isaac his son, “Abraham,” as we read, “called the name of that place The Lord sees: as they say to this day, In the mount the Lord has appeared.” Genesis 22:14 As it is said, “Now I know,” for Now I have made to be known, so here, “The Lord sees,” for The Lord has appeared, that is, made Himself to be seen. “And the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven the second time, saying, By myself I have sworn, says the Lord; because you have done this thing, and have not spared your beloved son for my sake; that in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess by inheritance the cities of the adversaries: and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.” Genesis 22:15-18 In this way that promise about the calling of the nations in the seed of Abraham is confirmed even by the oath of God, after that burnt offering which prefigured Christ. For He had often promised, but never sworn. And what is the oath of God, the true and faithful, but a confirmation of the promise, and a certain reproof to the unbelieving? After these things Sarah died, in the 127th year of her life, and the 137th of her husband for he was ten years older than she, as he himself says, when a son is promised to him by her: “Shall a son be born to me, who am a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Genesis 17:17 Then Abraham bought a field, in which he buried his wife. And then, according to Stephen's account, he was settled in that land, entering then on actual possession of it — that is, after the death of his father, who is inferred to have died two years before.