To particularize: when the governors of the five cities, Gath, Ekron, Askelon, Gaza, and Ashdod, met for the purpose of contriving to rid themselves of the ark which the Philistines had captured from the Hebrews, it would appear that they were cognizant of the natural means adopted by the Almighty to effect his purposes, although they, in their impiety, doubted the divine origin of their affliction by pestilence. Overlooking the omnipotence and all-wise direction of their Creator, they exhorted the people to bear patiently that which had befallen them, and to believe in no other causes of the pestilence which was effecting their destruction _than those springing from the operations of nature, which at certain revolutions of time produce such mutations in the bodies of men, in the earth, in plants, and in all things grown out of the earth, as to excite disease_. With reference to elemental disturbance, the prophet Amos (ch. iv. vss. 8 and 9) first describes the occurrence of a great drought, then the generation of insects--the palmer-worm and the canker-worm, which destroyed all foliage and herbage: vegetables, orchards, and olive-yards, all fell a sacrifice, and induced a grievous famine, succeeded by a dire pestilence. Habakkuk, in his prayer, (chap. iii.) makes allusion to a great pestilence preceded by earthquakes and great commotions of the elements; the sun and moon standing still in their habitations, the mountains trembling, and the waters overflowing, causing famine and pestilence, to the destruction of 14,000 persons. Again, in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, which contains the promised cursings and blessings of the Almighty on his people, we have a proverbial figure of speech, _expressively_ illustrative of the natural means employed by our Creator in effecting his purposes: “And thy heaven shall be brass, and the earth iron;” the one denoting a drought, during which the heavens will yield no rain, inferring also extreme heat; the other, the unproductiveness of the earth, yielding no fruit,--the effects of such drought being to induce famine, and ultimately disease. The experience of our own times exemplifies in the fullest manner the concurrence, from _physical causes_, of famine with pestilence--facts which the prophets of old always connected, viz., the sword, famine, and pestilence, as being three evils which generally accompanied or followed each other; and we cannot conceive a doubt as to the association not being accidental, especially of the two latter, but arising from their dependence upon similar atmospheric phenomena.