Read Christian, Puritan, Reformed and Protestant exhortational works, Catholic and Protestant polemical & apologetical works, histories, and martyrologies, online:   Hail & Fire Library

SERMONS APPOINTED TO BE READ IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH I QUOTE: "How necessary it is, that the Word of God, which is the only food of the soul, and that most excellent light that we must walk by, in this our most dangerous pilgrimage, should at all convenient times be preached unto the people" 1562 Preface

LIBRARIES - recommended links

Digital Libraries:

SUGGESTED READING

"Examination of the Council of Trent" by Martin Chemnitz This is a 4 volume dissertation on the events, record of the proceedings and behind-the-scenes discussions and debates that occurred during the 16th century Council of Trent. It shows plainly the intentions of the Catholic Church in holding the Council and presents the personal intentions of some of the members of the Council. The author is found in a rare moment in history and he transcribes the reactions and revelations of Council appointed spokesman, the Jesuit, Andrada, as well as his own reactions with the insight of a deep and extensive knowledge of ecclesiastical history and the development of doctrine that formed that edifice known as the Roman Catholic Church. The four volume set may be found on any major book search including Amazon, and is being reprinted by the Concordia Publishing House. Puritan Paperbacks This series of books contains the writings and sermons of the greatest English pastors of the late 16th and early 17th century: men of faith and virtue such as John Flavel, John Owens, Hugh Binning, Joseph Alleine, Richard Baxter, William Bridge, Richard Sibbes and Jeremiah Burroughs. Their exhortations on daily and constant Gospel living are from an era when men knew the sting of ecclesiastical power and intolerance, and they had not yet forgotten the grace of God in a new found freedom of conscience and in every man's right to possess the Word of God and to know it. The sermons and preaching of the Elizabethan Puritans is wholly unrelated to the modern preaching that gives us "positive thinking" for Gospel hope, and "God loves you as you are" in place of the Gospel call to repentance from sin; and the patient acceptance of persecution for the modern "victorious living" and prosperity theology. These writers speak from a time of trial that bred purity and grace and sanctification before all things: they dared to raise the bar of godliness back to that of the scriptures, to preach against spiritual hypocrisy and against spiritual slothfulness. Instead of a general call to believe that God exists and loves all men, these writers and preachers speak in a lively tone against the vanity and pride of this world that they may boldly show the proper and scriptural understanding of the high calling of God to righteousness and to unfeigned love and faith. The Puritan Paperbacks series is published by the Banner of Truth Trust. They may be purchased at bargain prices from Manchester Books or at Amazon.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Get a digital copy of the extant works of the Church Fathers translated by Philip Schaff, a wide range of writings of Catholic Saints (St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius Loyola) and Theologians (Duns Scotus, Erasmus, Johannes Eckhart), Protestant Reformers (John Calvin, John Wesley, Martin Luther) and preachers (Hugh Latimer, John Flavel, Jonathan Edwards), as well as great works such as John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Harnack's History of Dogma, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Bible, Schaff's History of the Christian Church, Braght's Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians, and modern works of import including Boettner's Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, and much more.

IntraText Digital Library
Read everything from Julius Ceasar's Gallic War to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, to Saint Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises, and the writings of various Catholic Saints, Church Fathers, Church Councils, numerous Papal Encyclicals, writings of the Protestant Reformers, documents of the Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, and much more.

Hanover Historical Texts Project
Read the Decrees of the Council of Trent, an Account of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, the Malleus Maleficarum, Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and much more.

Google Book Search
Books to search for include rare and invaluable text by 16th century Protestant Apologists appointed by the Court of Elizabeth I, including men such as William Fulke ("A Defence of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holy Scriptures Into The English Tongue"), William Whitaker ("A Disputation on Holy Scripture: Against the Papists, Especially Bellarmine"). Invaluable works in the vein of Mosheim's "Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern" may be found here as well.

Forum Romanum
Read numerous theological works spanning the entire time period of the Christian era, including the works of the Augustine, Anselm, Gregory the Great and other Church Fathers, the writings of men such as Berengar, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, papal bulls and encyclicals. Many items are in the original Latin and some have an English translation.

Medieval Sourcebook
www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
Read the very wide variety of theological works and ecclesiastical texts at Fordham University Library online. The Fordham University is the Jesuit University of New York.

Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
Read 20,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog.

Northwestern Theological Seminary Online Christian Library
Read Christian books in PDF format.

Oxford Text Archive Website
Find Tacitus, the Church Fathers, Bede, Boethius, and more.

Sant'Agostino: Tutte Le Opere: Editione Completa Latino/Italiano dell'Opera Omnia di Sant'Agostino. Versione Italiana. (All The Works of Augustine in Latin and Italian)
www.augustinus.it

Bibles:

E-Sword Bible
Download FREE - the E-Sword Bible program with a variety of Bible versions, Lexicons and more.

Online Bible
Download FREE - the Online Bible program with a variety of Bible versions, Lexicons and more.

Vulgata Clementina
At the Clementine Vulgate Project you may view the Clementine Vulgate Bible and the Douay–Rheims Bible side-by-side.

World Bible Translation Center
Free online digital versions of Bible translations - download the Bible in Arabic, Malayalam, Awadhi, Marathi, Bengali, Nepali, Brazilian Portuguese, Oriya, Bulgarian, Punjabi, Burmese, Romanian, Chinese, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Spanish, Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Urdu, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Kannada ... etc.

Kutsal Kitap (Turkish Bible)
Free online digital version of the Bible in Turkish.

Hindi Bible (India)
Free online digital version of the Bible in Hindi.

Marathi Bible (India)
Free online digital version of the Bible in Marathi.

Audio Books:

Doxology
A FREE Online resource for such great Christian classics as Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin and John Owens. Also find Charles Hodge, Augustine, an online Audio Bible, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Westminster Confession, A Puritan Catechism, and more.

Alexander Scourby Audio Bible NKJ
A FREE Online Audio Bible - listen and read along online.

Sermon Index
A FREE audio resource - look for audio books to download free, including Jonathan Edwards, John Flavel, John Calvin, John Bunyan, John Owens, Corrie Ten Boom and more.

LibriVox
A FREE audio resource.

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Purchase from the BOOKSTORE The Martyrdom of a People or The Vaudois of Piedmont and their History by Henry Fliedner “The Light Shines in Darkness." A Christian History and Martyrology: Henry Fliedner's work offers a concise history of those known as the Vaudois or Waldensians—Christians of the pre-Reformation era. Fliedner traces their Bible only (Sola Scriptura) faith, and the horrific persecutions they endured, from ancient times to the early 1900's. "They often travelled on horseback in different countries as hawkers, and, thanks to their bales of goods, obtained access to the rich and poor. ... While the merchant was doing business, he would observe the character of his customers, and when, at the end, they asked if he had anything else to sell, he would reply, 'Certainly, I have treasures much more precious than those which you have seen. ... a jewel which shines with such brightness, that it enables one to see, and to come to the knowledge of God.' ... The merchant then drew out of his pocket, or from a secret drawer of his travelling chest, a Gospel, and commenced to read." ... In this way the Vaudois found a means of spreading the Word of God more and more. ... What wonderful results might this seed-time have produced, if the storm of persecution had not broken out, reducing almost to naught the people of God. - Henry Fliedner Buy Now >>

Purchase from the BOOKSTORE The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod by Thomas Brooks first published in 1659 Thomas Brooks first published this work in 1659 as the expression of his own experience under trials and afflictions and as an encouragement and an admonition to others. Here afflictions, trials, temptations, and human weakness are set in the balance against Scriptural knowledge in an exhortation to faith and the humble acceptance and profiting of the children of God under the disciplining hand of a God who would be known as our Father: “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Hebrews 12:9-11. And as recorded in the Psalms, “My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Psalms 89:28-34. Buy Now >>

Purchase from the BOOKSTORE The Marriage Ring or How to Make Home Happy by John Angell James with a sermon on marriage by John Owen "As the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." - Ephesians 5:24-25 An exhortation on Christian Marriage and its Duties. The secret of happiness lies folded up in the leaves of the Bible and is carried in the heart of true religion. A good Christian cannot be a bad husband or father and, as this is equally true in everything, he who has the most piety will shine the most in all the relationships of life. A Bible placed between man and wife as the basis of their union, the rule of their conduct, and the model of their spirit will make up for many differences between them, comfort them under many crosses, guide them through many straits, support them in their last sad parting from one another and reunite them in that happy world where they shall remain forever. Let the two parties in wedded life be believers in Christ Jesus and partake themselves of the peace that surpasses understanding. And if happiness is to be found on earth, it will be enjoyed within the hallowed circle of a family thus united by love and sanctified by grace. BONUS SERMON - included at back of book: Right to Divorce & Remarriage in the Case of Adultery by John Owen Buy Now >>

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