Transcribed from the 1810 Mathews and Leigh edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org SERMONS BY THE LATE REV. RICHARD DE COURCY {i} * * * * * With an Essay on PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION _and a Preface by Rev. Brian Hill_ * * * * * SECOND EDITION. * * * * * London: Mathews and Leigh 1810 * * * * * PREFACE BY THE PRESENT EDITOR. THE following Essay and Sermons were published, by subscription, soon after the Author’s death, and were honored with as respectable a list of subscribers, as any work now extant. Mr. DE COURCY was so worthy a man, so distinguished a Christian, and so excellent a preacher, that we need not wonder, that all who had the happiness of his acquaintance, or enjoyed the benefit of his public ministry, wished to have, in their possession, some memorial of so valuable a friend. Mr. De C.’s views of the gospel were truly evangelical, the Parishioners of Saint Alkmond enjoyed the unspeakable advantage of a faithful ministration of the word of life; for, what he himself “tasted and felt, and handled,” of the good word of God, the preacher, with much zeal, affection and earnestness, recommended to others: the devotions of the desk and the instructions of the pulpit were not at variance; but, the one explained, elucidated and enforced the other, wherever this great man officiated. The attention of hearers, of all descriptions, was sure to be arrested, by the importance of the doctrines on which he insisted, the clearness with which he defended them, and the fervor with which they were enforced: his labors were abundantly blessed; and multitudes, we hope, will appear as his “crown of rejoicing,” another day. When the present proprietors (who are also the publishers) of the work, first contemplated its republication, it was both their wish and intention to gratify the religious public with a memoir of the Author, and arrangements were made for that purpose; but a friend of the deceased expressed a wish, that it might not be carried into execution: it is therefore withheld.