"[2] Samuel Smiles stated that he was "the scion of a distinguished Béarnese family"; although it is probable that the poverty of his parents would have excluded him from a learned career if some of the leading Protestants of the district had not charged themselves with the expenses of his education, which was begun under M. Jean de la Placette, the minister of Nay, He studied at Puylaurens, the Academy of Saumur, and the Academy of Sedan, receiving the degree of doctor in theology, it is said, at the age of seventeen.

The congregation of refugees, small enough at first to be accommodated in an apartment of the Count d'Espense's residence, grew gradually from increased emigration to Brandenburg, caused by the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685.

The elector ordered the ancient chapel of his palace to be prepared for the congregation, and the services were frequently attended by the younger members of his family.

[4] The remainder of Abbadie's life was spent in writing and preaching, and in the performance—not too sedulous, for he was frequently absent from his benefice—of the ordinary duties of his office, varied by visits to England and to Holland, where most of his books were printed.

Abbadie visited Holland to see his La Vérité through the press, and stayed more than three years in Amsterdam, 1720–23, during the preparation of Le Triomphe and other works.

An English translation, entitled A Sovereign Antidote against Arian Poyson, appeared in London, 1719, and again "revised, corrected, and, in a few places, abridged", by Abraham Booth, under the title of The Deity of Jesus Christ essential to the Christian Religion, 1777.

The entire apology for Christianity formed by the three volumes of the Traité, which combated severally the heresies of atheism, deism, and Socinianism, was received with praise.

These four productions, with other occasional sermons, were in 1760 republished collectively, in three volumes, at Amsterdam, and preceded by an Essai historique sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. Abbadie.

[4] Défense de la Nation Britannique, 1693 was an elaborate defence of the Glorious Revolution, written in answer to Pierre Bayle's Avis important aux Réfugiés, 1690.

Abbadie had also written, at the request of the king, Histoire de la dernière Conspiration d'Angleterre, 1696, a history of the conspiracy of 1696, which was reprinted in Holland and translated into English, and for which the Earl of Portland and Secretary Sir William Trumbull placed original documents at the author's disposal.