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ON THE

HISTORICAL PASSAGES

OF THE

OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT.

BY THE LATE

RIGHT REV. JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH.

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SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;

[553]

SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,

GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,

NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE;

AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1846.

205035

CONTEMPLATIONS.

BOOK XV.

CONTEMPLATION I.

UZZAH, AND THE ARK REMOVED.

THE house of Saul is quiet, the Philistines beaten ; victory cannot end better than in devotion: David is no sooner settled in his house at Jerusalem, than he fetcheth God to be his guest there; the thousands of Israel go now, in a holy march, to bring up the ark of God to the place of his rest. The tumults of war afforded no opportunity of this service; only peace is a friend to religion; neither is peace ever our friend, but when it is a servant of piety. The use of war is not more pernicious to the body, than the abuse of peace is to the soul; alas! the riot, bred of our long ease, rather drives the ark of God from us; so the still sedentary life is subject to diseases, and standing waters putrefy. It may be just with God to take away the blessing, which we do so much abuse, and to scour off our rust with bloody war, &c.

The ark of God had now many years rested in the obscure lodge of Abinadab, without the honour of a tabernacle. David will not endure himself glorious, and the ark of God contemptible; his first care is to provide a fit room for God, in the head of the tribes, in his own city. The chief care of good princes must be the advancement of religion; what should the deputies of God rather do, than honour him whom they represent? It was no good that Israel could

VOL. II.

B

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