The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so [do] stripes the inward parts of the belly.
Ver. 30. The blueness of the wound cleanseth.] Some must be beaten black and blue ere they will be better; neither is wit anything worth with them till they have paid well for it. - The Jews were ever best when in worst condition. The Athenians, Non nisi atrati, would never mend till they were in mourning. And,
“ Anglica gens est optima flens, et pessima ridens. ”
As a great statesman said of his nation, Physicians commonly cure a lethargy by a fever. Surgeons let their patients bleed sometimes, etiam ad deliquium animae. The scorpion heals his own wounds; and the viper being beaten and applied cures his own biting. Surely as the scourging of the garment with a stick beats out the moths and the dust, so do corrections corruptions from the heart; and as lancing lets out filth, so doth affliction sin.