II. THE VICIOUS MEAN.

ZOPHAR, the Naamathite, mentioneth a sort of men, in whose mouths wickedness is sweet, they hide it under their tongues, they spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still in their mouths. [Job xx. 12, 13.] This furnisheth me with a tripartite division of men in the world.

The first and best are those who spit sin out, loathing it in their judgments, and leaving it in their practice.

The second sort, notoriously wicked, who swallow sin down, actually and openly committing it.

The third, endeavouring an expedient betwixt heaven and hell, neither do nor deny their lusts; neither spitting them out nor swallowing them down, but rolling them under their tongues, epicurizing thereon, in their filthy fancies and obscene speculations.

If God at the last day of Judgment hath three hands, a right for the sheep, a left for the goats, the middle is most proper for these third sort of men. But both these latter kinds of sinners shall be confounded together. The rather because a sin thus rolled becomes so soft and supple, and the throat is so short and slippery a passage, that insensibly it may slide down from the mouth into the stomach; and contemplative wantonness quickly turns into practical uncleanness.