A Treatise on the Plague and Yellow Fever

The allusion, in this last passage of Diodorus, to the plagues of Egypt, mentioned in Exodus, is manifest; and it is equally manifest, that the Egyptians themselves, as well as the sacred historian, owned them to be miraculous. Here, however, let it be remarked, that, though these, and others inflicted on the Israelites, were miraculous, we are not from thence to conclude that they took place without the intervention of natural causes.

On the contrary, in speaking of the plagues of Egypt, we are told, that when the locusts came, “the Lord sent a strong east wind, all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.” In like manner “the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea.” Again, when the sea itself was divided, “the Lord caused it to go back by a strong east wind all that night.” The Egyptians were witnesses to this; but, as they did not believe that the powers of nature had any superior, they could never be induced to think that any of the elements would take part in a dispute between two nations, or favour the one more than the other.