A respected preacher, Delany wrote verse, journalism, and sermons. He did not manage his finances well, and he was saved by his marriage in 1732 to Margaret Tenison, a rich widow who provided Delany with an annual income of £1600. When she died, he remarried and received a lucrative preferment. He was a member of Swift's circle, and many of his poem's reference his friend in some way. In his sermons, Delany often wrote on education, tithes, and vice.