The remains of the reverend and learned Mr. John Corbet, late of Chichester printed from his own manuscripts.

§ 1. Of excess in the quantity or measure of Religious Observances.

ALL Superstition is an excess in Religion. The excess in the object thereof, being opened in the Second Part, here it remains that I speak of that which is in the Acts thereof; and this excess is either in the measure or in the kind, when the Rule of Religion is transgressed in either of these ways; and in some instances there may be an excess in both.

Excess in the quantity or measure of Religious Observances is, when tho the thing in kind were not an excess, yet for the quan∣tity it is more than conduceth to the end of Religion, yea is an hindrance thereto; as for Example, Prayer, or Preaching of the word too Prolix, or at an unseasonable time; too rigid a pres∣sing of Religious Exercises on the Lords day, or at any other

time lawfully set apart thereunto, contrary to the works of Mercy, or present necessity; yea that conveniency to life and converse, which doth not divert the mind from the things of God; too much care and curiosity about circumstances of Decency and Order; and too great a heaping up of Rites and Formalities.