“And this certainly is the first and great thing that Christians in all ages ought to be steadfast in, even in the doctrine which Christ and his Apostles taught, for that is the foundation of our whole religion; and therefore, unless we be well grounded in that, all our hopes of salvation will soon fall to the ground; it is by this that we believe aright in God, and in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; and it is by this also that we rightly understand our duty both to God and man; and therefore, without this we can neither believe nor live according to the Gospel of Christ, and by consequence can never be saved by him.” ~ William Beveridge (1637–1708), “Ministry and Ordinances of the Church of England”

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“O most dear and tender Father, our defender and nourisher, endue us with thy grace, that we may cast off the great blindness of our minds, and carefulness of worldly things, and [may put our whole study and] care in keeping thy holy law; and that we may labour and travail for our necessities in this life, like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, without care. For thou hast promised to be careful for us, and hast commanded that upon thee we should cast all our care, which livest and reignest world without end. Amen.” ~ Queen Elizabeth I, Private Prayers, put forth by Authority during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I

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“Christian children mainly need to be taught the doctrine, precept, and life of the gospel: they require to have Divine truth put before them clearly and forcibly. .. If there be any doctrine too difficult for a child, it is rather the fault of the teacher’s conception of it than of the child’s power to receive it, provided that child be really converted to God. It is ours to make doctrine simple; this is to be a main part of our work. Teach the little ones the whole truth and nothing but the truth; for instruction is the great want of the child’s nature. .. Children in grace have to grow, rising to greater capacity in knowing, being, doing, and feeling, and to greater power from God; therefore above all things they must be fed.” ~ C. H. Spurgeon, “Come Ye Children”

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De Ecclesia (The Church) by John Hus (Written in 1413

“No one is held to believe anything except what he is moved by God to believe, but God moves no man to believe what is false. Nemo tenetur quidquam credere nisi ad quod movet eum deus credere sed deus non movet hominem ad credendum falsum.” ~ John Hus, De Ecclesia (1413)

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“De Ecclesia” (The Church) by John Hus

John Hus was a 15th century Bohemian Reformer who, long before Martin Luther, spoke against the sale of indulgences and numerous other abuses that had crept into the Church. The immediate cause for the book “De Ecclesia” was the papal bulls that called for a ‘crusade’ against all who opposed the sale of indulgences in Bohemia. John Hus was accused of heresy, brought to trial, & turned over to the civil authority to be burned at the stake for his ‘heresy’ in 1415.

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“To make their state appear worse than it truly is, is the sin and folly of some good persons. But why should you be such enemies to your own peace? Why read over the evidences of God’s love to your soul, as a man does a book which he intends to confute? Why do you study evasions, and turn off those comforts which are due to you?” ~ “A Treatise on Keeping the Heart” by John Flavel

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“Keeping the Heart” by John Flavel

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“If riches increase, set not your hearts upon them: so if friends increase, set not your hearts upon them, but trust in the living God, let it be the living God that you rest on even for all outward things in this world.” ~ Jeremiah Burroughs (1649)

Read a quote each day: Quote of the Day

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“He who assumes that justification is the fruit of godliness shows that he judged by the light of nature & human reason as Plato & Aristotle would have judged. He who judges piety to be the fruit of justification, which is itself the fruit of faith, witnesses that he judges by the Holy Spirit & follows the teaching of the Apostles Peter & Paul. God, being compassionate, merciful, & generous to us in everything, laid all our sins upon His most precious Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to invest us with the righteousness of the same Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~ Juan de Valdés (1509-1541)

Read a quote each day: Quote of the Day

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“When we say, faith only justifieth us, that is to say, receiveth the mercy wherewith God justifieth us and forgiveth us; we mean not faith which hath no repentance, and faith which hath no love unto the laws of God again, and unto good works ..” Read the full reply of Tyndale to More (an excerpt from “Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue”): On Faith without Works

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~ On Baptism ~
John Frith, Reformer & Martyr, d.1533

“Paul testifies, saying, ‘He is not a Jew which is a Jew outwardly, neither is that circumcision anything, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is hid within the circumcision of the heart’ (Romans 2), which is the cutting off of carnal desires and is the true circumcision. This circumcision was in price with God, with the which, the Gentiles were circumcised. And in like manner, may we say of our baptism, he is not a Christian man which is washed with water, neither is that baptism which is outward in the flesh; but that is the very baptism which God alloweth, to be baptized spiritually in the heart.” ~ John Frith (Martyr, d.1533), “The Works of John Frith”

READ this book FREE online: “The Works of Tyndale & the Works of Frith” 1831 Edition Reprinted in online PDF format by Hail & FIRE 2009

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“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:20-21

Read a quote each day: Quote of the Day

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~ On Conversion ~
“An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners” by Joseph Alleine (1672)

“The laws of Christ are the convert’s love, desire, delight, and continual study. The bent of his course is directed to keep God’s statutes. It is the daily care of his life and walk with God: he seeks great things; he hath nobel designs; he aims at nothing less than perfection; he desires it, he reaches after it; he would not rest in any pitch of grace till he were quite rid of sin, and had perfected holiness. A sound convert desires holiness for holiness’ sake, and not only for heaven’s sake. He would not be satisfied with so much as might save him from hell, but desires the highest pitch; yet desires are not enough. What is thy way and thy course? Is the drift and scope of thy life altered? Is holiness thy trade, and religion thy business?” from “An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners” by Joseph Alleine (1634-1668)

At Hail & Fire we have (free for private reading or listening in audiobook format) a number of rare and hard-to-find works, histories, sermons, and exhortations. The content above is from one of our favorites and is a small excerpt or snippet to give you a taste and a reason to read more. Read free books and sermons online at www.hailandfire.com

READ this BOOK FREE online: “An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners” by Joseph Alleine (Hail & Fire) and purchase a Hail & Fire Paperback Reprint and support our efforts to acquire and convert rare and important Christian and historical works into paperback reprints and free online books and audio books.

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“Woe, thrice woe!” I called, with arms raised over my grey hairs. How gladly I would lose an eye, cut off a hand, or, if this should not be sufficient punishment, would I give my life, if I had not had part in Hus’ coming here. .. everything, which Hus had said and to which he had manly and honestly testified, had been deeply engraved upon my soul and had been spoken out of my own heart, for which I regard him highly and love him. He did not place his light beneath a barrel, but has made it shine into the dark places of unbelief, into such where I also had sat.

[When] the Bohemian (John Hus) was called upon by the chairman to recant everything which he had preached for years against the laws of the Church and had taught publicly. But he stood erect and answered for himself in a loud voice: ‘I can never deny the justification for my teaching and believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and so God wills, my strength shall remain within me constantly, as long as I have not been proven wrong by the Holy Bible.’”

Read a quote each day: Quote of the Day

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“I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16

Read a quote each day: Quote of the Day

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When Jonah entered Nineveh, he didn’t offer them an escape, he didn’t say ‘God just wants to love you,’ or ‘Just turn to the Lord,’ or even, ‘Repent and God will not destroy this city.” He didn’t even use the word “Repent.” He didn’t offer an “if.” God told him to go to Nineveh and “cry against it” (Jonah 1:2) because “their wickedness is come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). He was told to go to Nineveh and “Preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee” (Jonah 3:2), which was simply and only, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” (Jonah 3:4). AND ..

THE PEOPLE REPENTED. They repented of their own accord. They “believed God and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them,” (Jonah 3:5). The king himself got up and put aside his royal robe and proclaimed a fast saying, “Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” (Jonah 3:8-9)

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” (Jonah 3:10)

We know that their repentance was in truth and altogether real – it was not for a moment or a day or a season or just long enough to bring God to repent of the destruction that he had determined upon them. Jesus witnessed of the repentance of that people: “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here,” (Matthew 12:41).

Of the day in which we live, it was said: “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound,” (Isaiah 30:26). “Believe God” and repent unto life.

“To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” (Hebrews 4:7).

Read a quote each day: Quote of the Day

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“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” ~ Ephesians 2:10

God “ordained,” that is, he “prepared beforehand” that his children should walk in “ergois agathois,” good works! Good works are the fruit of redemption, not the reason for it!!

“It appears that all is of grace, because all our spiritual advantages are from God. We are his workmanship; he means in respect of the new creation; not only as men, but as saints. The new man is a new creature; and God is its Creator. The apostle having before ascribed this change to divine grace in exclusion of works .. observes that .. God, in his new creation, has designed and prepared us for good works: Created unto good works, with a design that we should be fruitful in them. Wherever God by his grace implants good principles, they are intended to be for good works. Which God hath before ordained, that is, decreed and appointed. Or, the words may be read, To which God hath before prepared us, that is, by blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and with the assistance of his Holy Spirit; and by producing such a change in us. That we should walk in them, or glorify God by an exemplary conversation and by our perseverance in holiness.” ~ Matthew Henry

READ a quote every day: Quote of the Day

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“In 1526, Bishop Tonstal [made] a special prohibition against the New Testament in English [Tindale] which, he asserted, contained ‘pernicious poison.’ He consulted a merchant of London how he might get these Testaments & burn them. The Bishop then thought all was safe but the printers in Holland, finding the books eagerly sought, printed another edition that came over in greater numbers than before.” ~ The Lollards

READ The Lollards free online!!

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“Isaiah did not send you to a bath .. to wash away .. sins, which not even all the water of the sea were sufficient to purge; but, as might have been expected, this was that saving bath of the olden time which followed those who repented, & who no longer were purified by the blood of goats and of sheep, or by the ashes of an heifer, or by the offerings of fine flour, but by faith through the blood of Christ ..

By reason, therefore, of this laver of repentance and knowledge of God, which has been ordained on account of the transgression of God’s people, as Isaiah cries, we have believed, and testify that that very baptism which he announced is alone able to purify those who have repented; and this is the water of life. But the cisterns which you have dug for yourselves are broken and profitless to you. For what is the use of that baptism which cleanses the flesh and body alone? Baptize the soul from wrath and from covetousness, from envy, and from hatred; and, lo! the body is pure. For this is the symbolic significance of unleavened bread, that you do not commit the old deeds of wicked leaven. But you have understood all things in a carnal sense .. Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, & he will obtain mercy, because He will abundantly pardon your sins. … What need, then, have I of circumcision, who have been witnessed to by God? What need have I of that other baptism, who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit?” ~ Justin Martyr (110-165ad), an excerpt from “Dialogue with Trypho” Read a quote each day: Quote of the Day

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HAIL & FIRE is a resource for Reformed and Gospel Theology in the works, exhortations, prayers, and apologetics of those who have maintained the Gospel and expounded upon the Scripture as the Eternal Word of God and the sole authority in Christian doctrine.

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The covenant of grace was this: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 We must each look into our own hearts & discover the reality of this or, lacking this reality within, we must seek God: “if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Deu 4:29.

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“There are many that will much marvel and count it a great presumption, that I, being so young and of so small learning, dare attempt to dispute this matter … Notwithstanding, I will desire them patiently to hear mine answer, not advertising who speaketh the words, but rather what is said. And as concerning mine youth, let them remember what Paul monisheth 1 Timothy 4 willing that Timotheus should instruct the congregation, and that no man should despise his youth; for as the Spirit of God is bound to no place, even so is he not addicted to any age or person, but inspireth when he will and where he will, making the young to see visions and espy the truth, and the elders to dream dreams .. And as touching my learning, I must needs acknowledge .. that it is very small, nevertheless that little .. have I determined by God’s grace, to bestow to the edifying of Christ’s congregation, which I pray God to increase in the knowledge of his word.

I would not that any man should admit my words or learning, except they will stand with the Scripture, and be approved thereby. Lay to the touchstone, and try them with God’s Word. If they be found false and counterfeit, then damn them, and I shall also revoke them with all mine heart; but if the Scripture allow them, that you cannot deny but it so is, then resist not the doctrine of God, but acknowledge your ignorance and seduction, and return gladly into the right way; for if you cannot improve it by God’s Word, and yet of an hate and malicious mind that you bear to the truth, labour to resist it, and condemn that it should not spread, I insure you your sin is irremissible, and even against the Holy Ghost.”  ~ John Frith

Read “The Works of the English Reformers: William Tyndale and John Frith” free online at www.hailandfire.com

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“Lightfoot says: ‘I have heard it more than once and again, from the Sheriffs who took all the Gunpowder plotters, and brought them up to London, that every night when they came to their lodging by the way, they had their music and dancing a good part of the night. One would think it strange that men in their case should be so merry.’ More marvellous still is it that those between whom and death there is but a step, should sport away their time as if they should live on for ages. Though the place of torment is within a short march of all unregenerate men, yet see how they make mirth, grinning and jesting between the jaws of hell!” ~ Charles H Spurgeon

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“As the word ‘Protestant’ is often misrepresented, a few remarks respecting its meaning may be useful. ‘Protestant’ and ‘Catholic’ are terms which, when rightly understood, are not conflicting. True Protestantism holds firmly to the truths set forth in the Creeds of the Apostolic Church, and protests only against unscriptural additions made to the Primitive Faith. Protestantism is the re-affirmation of that Faith combined with a distinct protest against those errors of doctrine, ritual, and practice which were brought, as St. Peter says, ‘privily’ into the Church of Christ (2 Pet. 2:2), but which were accepted as ‘Church teaching’ in mediaeval times, and are still too prevalent. The word Protestantism stands for the return to Primitive and Apostolic Christianity. It is the re-assertion of ‘the faith once for all delivered unto the saints’ (Jude 3). When Protestantism is negative in its declarations, it is only to preserve and accentuate some truth which is being perverted. Like the great ‘Ten Words,’ as the Jews were wont to term ‘the Ten Commandments,’ truths sometimes appear to be simply negations, when in reality they are very far from having that character, as our Lord’s summary of that Law abundantly proves (Matt 22:36-40).

The present [undertaking], therefore, although constructive, is necessarily controversial. Persons who object to controversy ignore the fact that the teaching of Christ and His Apostles was controversial. Truth was set forth by them in contrast with the errors of their times. The first teachers of Christianity were compelled to draw attention to ‘the weakness and unprofitableness’ of the old Mosaic Law then passing away (Heb. 7:18), and to oppose the ‘tradition of men’ which had perverted and misrepresented the nobler elements of that Law (Mark 7:7-9). The Apostolic Age has been described by the inspired writer as ‘a time of Reformation’ (Heb. 9:10). The Creeds of the Church were the outcome of controversy. The most brilliant periods of the Church’s history were times of controversy. The battle of truth will not be finally won until He that is ‘Faithful and True’ Himself appears on the scene of conflict (Rev. 19:11), and until that day arrives, it is faithlessness on the part of the soldiers of Christ to lay aside their armour, and to put into its scabbard ‘the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God’ (Eph. 6:17).” ~ Wright & Neil, “The History, Doctrines, & Practices of the Christian Church” (1904)

As those who have gone before us, the Hail & Fire seeks, through this blog and other publications, to remove in some measure that uncertainty and lack of awareness on the points at issue between Protestants and Roman Catholics. We trust that our work may enable Protestant preachers, lecturers, and Christians who are unversed in the Roman controversy, to bear witness to the truth with more power and to testify in a spirit of love against all Roman errors. Those errors confuse divine truths and they prevent that exercise of private judgment that the Scripture in all places assume to be one of the first duties of man; they tend to weaken personal responsibility, destroy Christian liberty, sap the strength of those who would be faithful, and imperil the salvation of souls.

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“To trust in our good works and expect justification in whole or in part – now or in the day of judgement – by our obedience, is to exalt pride, despise the Gospel, and reject Jesus Christ. Beware of such doctrine.” ~ American Tract Society

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“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.

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“O Christian reader, from rashness refrain
Of hasty judgment, and light sentence.

Though some reckon it forwardness of brain
Thus to detect ye clergies’ inconvenience.

Unto Christ’s words give thou advertence,
Which saith nothing to be done so secretly
But it shall be known manifestly.

Whereas men discern no grief of darkness,
Full little is desired the comfortable light.

The day is restrained to show its clearness,
Till the clouds be expelled of the night.

As long as we perceive not wrong from right,
Neither holiness from false hypocrisy,
The truth cannot be known manifestly.”

~ A Lollard Writing, “A Proper Dialogue between a Gentleman and Husbandman: each complaining to other their miserable calamite, through the ambition of the clergy.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Read the full text of “A Proper Dialogue,” written by a Lollard about 1450 ad., from the British Museum copy, Edward Arber, Editor, free online, reprinted in parallel columns with updates and annotations by H&F, 2009 Edition.

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“There are many shades of difference between those who flatly renounce, and those who cordially embrace the doctrine of Redemption by Christ. This class has a sort of general, indeterminate, and ill understood dependence on our blessed Savior. But their hopes, so far as they can be distinctly made out (for their views also are very obscure) appear ultimately to bottom on the persuasion that they are now, through Christ, become members of a new dispensation, wherein they will be tried by a more lenient rule than that to which they must have been otherwise subject. ‘God will not now be extreme to mark what is done amiss; but will dispense with the rigorous exactions of his law, too strict indeed for such frail creatures as we are to hope that we can fulfill it. Christianity has moderated the requisitions of Divine Justice; and all which is now required of us, is thankfully to trust to the merits of Christ for the pardon of our sins, and the acceptance of our sincere though imperfect obedience. The frailties and infirmities to which our nature is liable, or to which our situation in life exposes us, will not be severely judged: and as it is practice that really determines the character, we may rest satisfied, that if on the whole our lives be tolerably good, we shall escape with little or no punishment, and through Jesus Christ our Lord, shall be finally partakers of heavenly felicity.’

But it is sometimes not difficult to anyone who is accustomed, if the phrase may be allowed, to the anatomy of the human mind, to discern, that generally speaking, the persons who use the above language, rely not so much on the merits of Christ, and on the agency of Divine Grace, as on their own power of fulfilling the moderated requisitions of Divine Justice.

They have never summoned themselves to this entire and unqualified renunciation of their own merits, and their own strength; and therefore they remain strangers to the natural loftiness of the human heart, which such a call would have awakened into action, and roused to resistance. All these their several errors naturally result from the mistaken conception entertained of the fundamental principles of Christianity. They consider not that Christianity is a scheme for “justifying the ungodly,” by Christ’s dying for them “when yet sinners;” a scheme “for reconciling us to God – when enemies;” and for making the fruits of holiness the effects, not the cause, of our being justified and reconciled: that, in short, it opens freely the door of mercy, to the greatest and vilest of penitent sinners; that obeying the blessed impulse of the grace of God, whereby they had been awakened from the sleep of death, and moved to seek for pardon, they might enter in, and through the regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit might be enabled to bring forth the fruits of righteousness. But they rather conceive of Christianity as opening the door of mercy, that those who on the ground of their own merits could not have hoped to justify themselves before God, may yet be admitted for Christ’s sake, on condition of their having previously satisfied the moderated requisitions of Divine Justice. In speaking to others also of the Gospel scheme, they are apt to talk too much of terms and performances on our part, on which we become entitled to an interest in the sufferings of Christ; instead of stating the benefits of Christ’s satisfaction as extended to us freely, “without money and without price.” ~ William Wilberforce on “Real Christianity”

Read “Real Christianity” by William Wilberforce free online.

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Hail & Fire released it’s first paperback in late 2010. Numerous works are underway for republication and all paperback releases will be announced on the Books and on our Bookstore page as they become available.

By purchasing Hail & Fire paperbacks you help support our effort to acquire and convert rare and important Christian works into free online books, audio books, and paperback reprints and republications. Check back often!

Featured at right, Godliness is Profitable for All Things by Isaac Barrow.

Book Description: “In all places and in all societies, piety—or godliness—produces, advances, and establishes order, peace, safety, prosperity, all that is good, all that is lovely and agreeable, and all that is convenient and pleasant for human society and ordinary life.

Piety is the special interest of all who are involved in governing and education. Piety is their greatest wisdom and policy; it will both preserve their outward state here in this world, and it will satisfy their consciences and save their souls. All the Machiavellian arts and tricks amount to nothing in comparison to this one plain and easy way of securing and furthering the interests of men. Piety is not moved to needless change. Piety cherishes worth and encourages industry, whereupon virtue flourishes and wealth is increased and, as a result, the occasions and means of disorder are stopped and the pretences for sedition and faction are cut off.

If every governor would have the people honest and diligent, if every parent would have his children obliging and grateful, if every man would have his friend faithful and kind, if we would have others act in a just and sincere manner, then we must each strive to further piety from which all good dispositions and practices proceed.

Piety is a fence protecting each individual—rendering each man civil, condescending, kind, and helpful to others. Piety is the only and right ballast of society.”

Purchase on Amazon.com.

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Look for the H&F Quote of the Day: tune in to read exhortative, historical, and doctrinal quotations from Protestant Reformers, Puritan preachers, Christian authors, and an occasionally notorious quotation from the Church Fathers, historians, Saints, and ecclesiastical doctors.

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