The latest volume in the valuable series of early modern Irish church records produced by Four Courts Press and the Representative Church Body provides twenty-four selected texts from a recently discovered cache of sixty-one manuscript sermons that were preached by Saurin, a Church of Ireland clergyman of Huguenot descent, during his tenure as vicar of Belfast. In contrast to the printed texts, mainly dealing with major political or theological issues, that have hitherto monopolised the attention of Irish historians, these are the tools of a day-to-day ministry, written in large script for easy use in poorly lit pulpits, addressed to a congregation consisting mainly of tradesmen and small shopkeepers, and offering clear, well-structured discourses capable of being delivered in just over half an hour. There is one sermon on a state occasion, welcoming the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and a few sideswipes at Catholicism, including a painstaking explanation of why Christ's commission to Peter did not after all support the pretensions of the papacy. For the most part, however, Saurin concentrated on matters of practical religious duty and morality, with a consistent emphasis on the need for faith to be accompanied by good works. The overall impression is less of a proud ascendancy Church than of a quiet, insistent piety.