Transcribed from the 1810 Mathews and Leigh edition by DavidPrice,
With anEssay on
Pure and Undefiled Religion
and a Preface by Rev. Brian Hill
SECOND EDITION.
London:
Mathews and Leigh
1810
The following Essay and Sermonswere published, by subscription, soon after the Author’sdeath, and were honored with as respectable a list ofsubscribers, as any work now extant. Mr. De Courcy was so worthy a man, sodistinguished a Christian, and so excellent a preacher, that weneed not wonder, that all who had the happiness of hisacquaintance, or enjoyed the benefit of his public ministry,wished to have, in their possession, some memorial of so valuablea friend. Mr. De C.’s views of the gospel were trulyevangelical, the Parishioners of Saint Alkmond enjoyed theunspeakable advantage of a faithful ministration of the word oflife; for, what he himself p. iv“tasted and felt, andhandled,” of the good word of God, the preacher, with muchzeal, affection and earnestness, recommended to others: thedevotions of the desk and the instructions of the pulpit were notat variance; but, the one explained, elucidated and enforced theother, wherever this great man officiated. The attention ofhearers, of all descriptions, was sure to be arrested, by theimportance of the doctrines on which he insisted, the clearnesswith which he defended them, and the fervor with which they wereenforced: his labors were abundantly blessed; and multitudes, wehope, will appear as his “crown of rejoicing,”another day.
When the present proprietors (who are also the publishers) ofthe work, first contemplated its republication, it was both theirwish and intention to gratify the religious public with a memoirof the Author, and arrangements were made for that purpose; but afriend of the deceased expressed a wish, that it might not becarried into execution: it is therefore withheld.
Happy would it be for the Christian Church, if all whoofficiate at her altars could “give as p. vfull proof oftheir ministry.” Mr. De. C. has not only ablyvindicated “the peculiar doctrines of the gospel,”but he has shown, in a very masterly manner, that those who claimto themselves the title of gospel-ministers, are the only personswho preach according to the 39 Articles, and that, instead ofbeing the enemies of the Establishment, are its onlyconsistent friends and its most able defenders. Having, “cordially and without mental reservation,equivocation or disguise,” signed the Articles, anddeclared his “assent and consent to all and every thingthey contain,” and being convinced, after the most seriousinvestigation and earnest prayer, that the doctrines of theChurch of England are the doctrines of the gospel, hewould have accused himself of hypocrisy and wickedness, had henot founded all his services upon those important truths, whichare found both in the Bible and the Prayer-book. And, it isasked, What churches are so well attended, as those in which thepure word of God is preached? What clergymen are so trulyexemplary in their conduct, as those who are termed“