And the punishment which these transgressions often bring down upon man, even in this life, must be regarded as " mere premonitory droppings of the tempest of wrath which will one day overwhelm the ungodly."
(c) But there is yet a climax in the train of calamities which the curse will bring to the house of the wicked. It shall not only " dwell " there, but it " shall consume it with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof" Here we see the terribleness of the punishment which sin brings down upon itself. It shall be utterly " cleansed away," or " consumed " from the midst of God's congregation, together with those sinners who are no longer separable from it.
The terms in the last sentence are almost identical with those used of the house stricken with leprosy in Lev. xiv. 45, which, too, had to be destroyed, "both the stones thereof and the timber thereof"; and this undoubted allusion supplies another hint of the fact that already in the Old Testament leprosy was regarded as a type of sin, and that what that terrible and loathsome disease did for men's bodies and their earthly habitations, sin does for men's souls, not only in relation to the life that now is, but also in relation to that which is to come. There is only one way by which we can escape the curse of a broken law, and that is, instead of being " cleansed away " with our sins by God's wrath into perdition, to be cleansed from our sins in that fountain which God has opened in the pierced side of Messiah for sin and uncleanness, and which makes the
about Glaucus. The name of this man was held in high repute for integrity, and hence a Milesian came to him to deposit a sum of money on trust. The deposit was accepted by Glaucus. But when the money was required by the sons of the depositor, who presented the tallies in support of their claim, Glaucus hesitated to restore it. lie consulted the oracle of Delphi whether he might perjure him self and appropriate the money. The priestess told him that it was best for the present to do as he desired, because death was the common lot of the honest and the dishonest. "Yet oath has a son, nameless, handless, footless, but swift; he pursues until he seize and destroy the whole race and house." On hearing this, Glaucus begged to be pardoned for his question; but the priestess replied that it was as bad to have tempted the god as to have done the deed. Glaucus ulti mately restored the money to its owners. Yet it was noted that his whole family became extinct, which was considered as a punishment for consulting the oracle whether he might perjure himself.
