Blair Collection > Practical grammar of the antient Gaelic, or, Language of the Isle of Man, usually called Manks

XXX A SERMON.
might as reasonably be demanded, Why the law, written by the
finger of God, and promulgated from Mount Sinai " out of the
midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness,^^* did
not produce the efiect of restraining the people from the commis-
sion of SIN, as that the Divine partition of the land should long
prevent individuals from becoming poor. " Thus shall God be
justified in His ways, and clear when He is judged.^^f And
if within the narrow limits of Judea, and under the Divine theo-
cracy, no particular rules were devised sufiicient to secure to
individuals their respective portions for ever, we are prepared to
receive these truths : — that the same law applies to mankind in
general ; that their wants are a condition of their being ; and
that, although the Almighty had " blessed the earth that it
brought forth abundantly," J yet made He no certain provision
against particular instances of want and distress, whether they
should arise from natural or moral evil.
But, notwithstanding He permits both these kinds of evil to
exist in the world, yet "can we not charge the Lord with folly/^§
for we may perceive that natural evil is rather incidental than
necessary ; that it is nowhere systematical, but produced ; that
it is the efiect of causes, which in themselves are generally good;
and that moral evil arises principally from the free-agency of
man, which, instead of constituting the excellence of his nature,
when perverted, misapplied, and abused, becomes its disgrace,
and enables him to choose the evil and to refuse the good. And
in like manner, although the benevolent Father of the universe
should sufier misery to obscure His works, and that " the poor
should never cease out of the land,^^ though He has made no
immediate, no appropriate provision for them, yet " left He not
Himself without witness in the world /'|| for He has planted
in the breast of man a powerful advocate, to plead the cause —
" the cause of him who has no helper,"^ and formed his heart of
such exquisite materials, that while he is engaged in communi-
cating happiness to others he most efibctually increases his own.
* Deut. V. 22. t I's- li- 4. J Gen. i. S Job i. 22. \\ Acts xiv. 1 7. ^ Ps. Ixxii. 12.