If then we are to believe that diseases, especially those called epidemics, among which the plague holds the first place, have arisen in consequence of a certain line of conduct adopted by the human race, or have been inflicted by the Deity as punishments on that account, we are to look for their origin among those to whom the Deity principally manifested himself; that is, the Jews, and nations who interfered with them. Among the Jews we hear of the first general plague distinctly mentioned; viz. the three days pestilence of David, and to which it is possible that Homer alludes in his Iliad. Next to this is the great plague of 767 B. C. said to have spread all over the world. This coincides with the time of Pul, king of Assyria; who, having overthrown the ancient kingdom of Syria, turned his arms against that of Israel, and no doubt extended his conquests among the eastern nations, as we know very well the Assyrian monarchs did. As the ten tribes, ever after their separation from the house of David, had in a manner totally given themselves up to idolatry, we are not to wonder if the pestilence, so frequently threatened by Moses, was very common, or, as physicians term it, _endemic_, among them. Thus, whatever enemy invaded the country, would almost certainly carry the disease along with them, and spread it among the other nations with whom they afterwards had any connexion. At this time, or even before this, during the wars of Syria with Israel and Judah, this dreadful pestilence might begin; but, as to its being all over the world in any particular year, I do not see how it can be ascertained; because there are no general histories of the world in those early times. It appears more probable that this general pestilence took place at the time that Sennacherib’s army was destroyed. I have no doubt, indeed, for the reasons already given, that the plague had infected Sennacherib’s army before he went into Ethiopia. In that country, in all probability, he would leave it; and, after his return to Judea, when the dreadful catastrophe befel him of an hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men being destroyed in one night, there can be no doubt that the remains of his army would carry with them the seeds of a most malignant pestilence, capable of spreading destruction far and wide. It is true, we are not directly told, in Scripture, that the Assyrian army was destroyed by a plague, but that the angel of the Lord destroyed them; but, as this expression is quite similar to what we read of the pestilence in David’s time, there can be but little doubt that the means of destruction made use of in both cases were the same. Josephus expressly says, that Sennacherib’s army was destroyed by a pestilence. Neither are we to conclude, because this pestilence was miraculous, that it therefore certainly killed every one on whom it fell; or that it would not infect those who came near the sick, as any other disease of the kind would do.