|
HOME | LIBRARY BOOKS | CATEGORY | PROTESTANT APOLOGETICS (Protestant Apologetica)
LIBRARY BOOKS: PROTESTANT APOLOGETICS
ABOUT PROTESTANT APOLOGETICS: These Protestant Christian apologetic works have been placed online so that those of a Protestant and Gospel faith might have these rare and historical resources readily available, and that those of a Catholic faith may have access to the same, that some might, by comparing and contrasting the traditions and dogmas of the Church to the Word originally preached, come thereby to choose the witness of Jesus Christ over all these. In the words of John Frith (Protestant Martyr, 1533), "I thought it expedient therein to write my mind, trusting, by that means, to bring again the blind hearts of many unto the right way, and I doubt not but that the elect and chosen of God that know their Shepherd's voice, and have the spirit to judge all things, shall easily perceive whether this be conformable to their master's voice, and shall hereby be admonished to leave their wandering in the dark and loathsome ways which lead unto death, and to walk without stumbling in the comfortable light."
A
B
Free Online Books: An 1849 Edition, edited for and published by The Parker Society.
"Of his own chosen martyrs Christ looketh for none other miracle but that only they persevere faithful to the end, Matt, x., and never deny his verity afore men, Luke xii. For that worthy victory of the sinful world standeth in the invincibleness of faith, and not in miracles and wonders, as those wavering wits suppose, 1 John v."
Isaac Barrow, D. D. was Master of Trinity College at Cambridge from 1672 until his death in 1677. Prior to his being appointed to this position by Charles II, he held a Greek Professorship and the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge. It was his friend and former pupil, Isaac Newton, who succeeded to this chair after he chose to devote himself entirely to divinity. The works of Isaac Barrow, were, upon his death, presented by his father, Thomas Barrow, to Heneage, the Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Chancellor of England and member of the King's Privy Council, for the imparting of such works and sermons to the public. Isaac Barrow is entombed in Westminster Abbey. Free Online Books:
An 1834 Edition. Originally published in 1670.
"If so illustrious an office was instituted by our Saviour, it is strange that no where in the evangelical or apostolical history (wherein divers acts and passages of smaller moment are recorded) there should be any express mention of that institution; there being not only much reason for such a report, but many pat occasions for it: the time when St. Peter was vested with that authority; the manner and circumstances of his instalment therein; the nature, rules, and limits of such an office, had surely well deserved to have been noted, among other occurrences relating to our faith and discipline, by the holy Evangelists; no one of them, in all probability, could have forborne punctually to relate a matter of so great consequence, as the settlement of a monarch in God's Church, and a sovereign of the apostolical college; (from whom so eminent authority was to be derived to all posterity, for compliance wherewith the whole Church, for ever must be accountable;) particularly it is not credible that St. Luke should quite slip over so notable a passage, who had, as he telleth us, attained a perfect understanding of all things, and had undertaken to write in order the things that were surely believed among Christians in his time (Luke 1:1); of which things, this, if any, was one of the most considerable."
Also find author under: Sermons - Sermons, on Various Subjects
Paperback Bookstore - Godliness is Profitable for All Things
Daniel Brevint, D.D., was a French Huguenot Christian and Dean of Lincoln in 1682. Brevint is the author of "Saul and Samuel at Endor or The New Ways of Salvation and Service, which Usually Tempt Men to Rome, and Detain Them There, Truly Represented, and Refuted." Free Online Books: A 1674 Edition.
"It is great pity that this fancy of distributing presidencies and powers thus among Roman Saints, has no better ground then that had which Julian the Apostate alleges [Julian ap Cyrill. Alexand. l. 4. sub init.], and St. Augustin observes to have been constantly practiced among the ancient pagan gods [Augustin. de Civitate l. 6-8]. What signifies, says the holy Father elsewhere, that trifling division of offices among your gods, wherefore must they be severally prayed to, but to make it rather a play fit for a stage, than anything which may become the worth and gravity of a true God? This new comedy is still the same, only the actors wear better clothes, or rather borrow better names; and the Roman People that stand about it, adore the Virgin for Juno, and St. George instead of Mars ... First, it is a great presumption to pretend to more wisdom, in point of serving God and saving ourselves, then either God has appointed, or all the holy prophets and Apostles have known and taught: and it is most just and likely, that men should meet with strong delusions, and with the devils themselves, when they venture upon slippery, & unknown, and dark bypaths, where not one of God's saints ever dared walk."
C
John Calvin was a French Protestant Christian Reformer. Calvin is also known as Giovanni Calvino in italian. Free Online Books:
An 1840 Edition in 2 volumes. Translated from the Original Latin and Collated with the Author's Last Edition in French by John Allen.
"Let them now go and clamour against us as heretics for having withdrawn from their Church, since the only cause of our estrangement is, that they cannot tolerate a pure profession of the truth. I say nothing of their having expelled us by anathemas and curses. The fact is more than sufficient to excuse us, unless they would also make schismatics of the apostles, with whom we have our common cause. Christ, I say, forewarned his apostles, 'they shall put you out of the synagogues' (John 16: 2). ... it is certain that we were cast out, and we are prepared to show that this was done for the name of Christ ... to me it is enough that we behoved to withdraw from them in order to draw near to Christ."
Edizione 1557 in Italiano (1557 Italian Edition)
Raro e storico nell'italiano originale di Giulio Cesare Paschali, che ha fuggito l'Italia per tradurre e pubblicare il libro inestimabile del Giovanni Calvino, Institutiones della Religione Christiana. Calvin ha pubblicato la prima edizione del suo Institutio Christianae Religionis o Institutione della Religione Christiana in 1536. Il lavoro è un apologia o una difesa della Fede Riformata e una dichiarazione della dottrina religiosa dei Protestants.
Also find author under: Free Online Books: Originally published 1678-1683. Reprinted by Several Gentlemen in the 1735-1736 Edition in 2 Volumes. "If Paul were not inferior to the very chief of the Apostles, then Peter had no such superiority: but the first is asserted, 2 Cor 11:5. Ergo ... There is no instance of any appeal, that was ever made to Peter, to decide controversies; but, when a debate arose between Paul and Barnabas, and others, about circumcision, they referred the point, not to Peter, but to the Church, and the Apostles and elders at Jerusalem, who debated upon it, and formed their determination about it, exactly according to James' sentence, which was an improvement of, and addition to what Peter had said upon it; and this they wrote to the gentiles, not as the decree of Peter, (and 'twas indeed rather the decree of James) but as what seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to the Apostles, and elders, and brethren, who met at Jerusalem on that occasion. Acts 15:2-29. Therefore Peter had no such authority" This work is also available under: Cecil, Sir William (1520-1598) Sir William Cecil, also known as Lord Burleigh, was a Protestant Christian and a Counselor to the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England. Free Online Books:
A 1675 Edition containing the following books: I. The Execution of Justice in England, not for Religion, but for Treason: 17 Dec. 1583 written by William Cecil (Lord Burleigh), Protestant Christian Counselor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. II. Important Considerations, by the Secular Priests: Printed A.D. 1601. written by the Roman Catholic Priest William Watson (1559-1603ad, trained at Rheims) and others. III. The Jesuits Reasons Unreasonable: 1662. written by a Catholic.
"The design of publishing these Treatises, is to vindicate the Honour and Justice of our Laws from the rude aspersions, which have been lately cast upon them, by such who are better versed in Hollinshead and Stow, than in the true Reasons and Occasions of those Laws. This is the present method of dealing with our Church and Laws, when our Adversaries have been quite tired with scolding, they betake themselves to throw dirt in the face of them; and I am sorry the weakness or imprudence of any late Historians among us should furnish them with dunghils for this purpose. But since we have to deal with such who have no advantage, but what the weakness and mistakes of their Adversaries give them, it were heartily to be wished, that some effectual course were taken, that the History of our Church since the Reformation, might be delivered to Posterity with greater care and sincerity than hath yet been used about it."
D
E
Free Online Books:
An 1850 Edition.
"The popedom, raised to the supremacy in church and state, challenged a controlling power over the partisans of heresy, schism and apostacy, as well as over kings. The sovereign pontiffs, in the madness of ambition and despotism, affected the dominion over all mankind, and called the arm of the civil magistracy to their aid, to enforce their pretensions. Schismatics and heretics, accordingly, though separated from the Romish communion, are reckoned subject to its authority, as rebels and deserters are amenable to the civil and military laws of their country. The traitor may be punished by the state for his perfidy; and the apostate, in like manner, may, from the church, undergo excommunication and anathemas. He may even, according to Aquinas, Dens, and the University of Salamanca, followed by that of Valladolid, be compelled by arms to return to the profession of Catholicism. This assumption of power and authority has given rise, as might be expected, to long and sanguinary persecutions."
F
James Fraser of Brae was a Scottish, Protestant Christian Minister of the Gospel at Culrosswas. Free Online Books: A 1744 Edition printed from James Fraser's own original manuscript.
"The Author's Manuscript is intitled, 'An Enquiry into that so much debated Case, viz. Whether it be the Duty of the Lord's People in Britain and Ireland, to hear such as have submitted to the Prelatical Government, or to join with them while in the Exercise of such Acts as do belong to their pastoral Office.' ... Though this Treatise is particularly levelled against Compliance with Prelacy, and Communion with Prelatics, yet the Publication thereof, at this Time, is reckoned highly suitable unto our present Situation and Controversy in Scotland: For as the fond Reception, which Mr. George Whitefield, a Priest of the Church of England, and his latitudinarian Scheme, have met with, do plainly call us to arms against an Invasion of Prelacy; so the Arguments here pled are plainly applicable unto, and of equal Force against the sinful Compliances of our Day, with the Defections of the established Church of Scotland, and Communion with the Judicatories thereof, with whom Communion is now impracticable, without Involvement in that Current of Apostacy wherewith they are all carried down." (1744 Publisher's Preface to the Reader)
Free Online Books:
An 1834 Protestant Reprint Edition. Originally published in 1582.
G
Hugo Grotius was a Dutch Protestant Christian Reformer. Free Online Books:
1840 Edition in English. Corrected with notes by Mr. Le Clerc and translated into English by John Clark, D.D., Dean of Sarum. Originally published in Latin.
"The design of the book is to show the reasonableness of believing and embracing the Christian religion above any other; which our author does, by laying before us all the evidence that can be brought, both internal and external, and declaring the sufficiency of it; by enumerating all the marks of genuineness in any books, and applying them to the sacred writings: and by making appear the deficiency of all other institutions of religion."
H
John Huss was a Bohemian or Czech Protestant Christian Reformer who was imprisoned, tried, and martyred at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church during the Council of Constance in 1415. This is the same council which ordered the exhuming and burning of the bones of the English Protestant Reformer John Wycliffe. Huss' trial and burning are related in the eye-witness accounts written by Poggius the 'Papist' in "Hus the Heretic or The Infallibility of the Pope at the Council of Constance." Huss is also known as John Hus and Jan Hus.
Free Online Books:
A 1915 Edition, translated, with notes and introduction by David S. Schaff, D.D., Professor of Church History at the Western Theological Seminary. Originally 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."
"I hope, by God's grace, that I am truly a Christian, not deviating from the faith, and that I would rather suffer the penalty of a terrible death than wish to affirm anything outside of the faith or transgress the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spero, ex Dei gratia, quod sum christianus ex integro, a fide non devians, et quod potius vellem pati dirae mortis supplicium, quam aliquid vellem prataer fidem asserere, vel transgredi mandata Domini Jesu Christi."
I
J
John Jewel was Bishop of Salisbury in the Church of England and a Protestant Christian Apologist. Jewel was a friend and disciple of Peter Martyr and saw the reigns of the four Tudor monarchs in England, those of King Henry VIII, Catholic Queen Mary Tudor or "Bloody Mary," Protestant King Edward VI, and Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. Free Online Books: An 1888 Edition. Originally published in 1562.
"But we truly, seeing that so many thousands of our brethren in these last twenty years have borne witness unto the truth, in the midst of most painful torments that could be devised; and when princes, desirous to restrain the Gospel, sought many ways, but prevailed nothing; and that now almost the whole world doth begin to open their eyes to behold the light; we take it that our cause hath already been sufficiently declared and defended ... against the will of emperors ... against the wills of so many kings, in spite of the popes, and almost maugre the head of all men, hath taken increase, and by little and little spread over into all countries, and is come at length even into kings' courts and palaces ... God Himself doth strongly fight in our quarrel, and doth from heaven laugh at their enterprises; and that the force of truth is such, as neither man's power, nor yet hell-gates are able to root it out. ... So many free cities, so many kings, so many princes, which have fallen away from the seat of Rome, and have rather joined themselves to the Gospel of Christ."
Also find author under:
Audio Books - The Apology of the Church of England
K
L
Lollard was a name or term used for Protestant Christians in England during the begining of the Protestant Reformation. Detailed information about the Lollards can be found in the free online books, "The Lollards; or Some Account of the Witness for the Truth in Great Britain, Between the Years 1400 and 1546" and "An Apology for Lollard Doctrines" attributed to the Protestant Reformer John Wycliffe. Free Online Books: 2009 Edition by H&F Books featuring the original publication in parallel columns with an updated edition and additonal annotations. An apology written by a Lollard Christian about 1450 A.D. Originally published in 1530 from a unique copy in the British Museum: "A Proper Dyaloge between a Gentillman and husbandman: eche complaynynge to other their miserable calamite, through the ambicion of the clergye."
"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."
Martin Luther was a German Protestant Christian Reformer, formerly a Catholic monk and priest. Free Online Books:
Originally published in 1517. In Latin and English parallel columns
"1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance. 2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests. 3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh. 4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven. 5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons. 6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's remission."
Also find author under:
Sermons - Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians
M
Free Online Books:
An 1833 Edition.
"There is nothing among Papists more common, than to represent a large portion of the great, even the greatest, in our land, as like King Charles the Second, Catholics in heart, though Protestants by public profession; and, instead of considering this a disgrace, they consider it one of the great glories of their church."
N-O
P
Peyran, Jean Rodolphe (1752-1823) Jean Rodolphe Peyran was a Protestant Christian Pastor of Pomaret and Moderator of the Waldensian Church. Free Online Books:
An 1826 Edition, London.
"The writer of the following French treatises - Jean Rodolphe Peyran - was a native of the valleys of Piedmont; where both his father and grandfather had been raised to the office of Moderator of the Waldensian church. He studied at the University of Geneva; and for many years before his decease officiated as pastor of the church of Pomaret, and, agreeably to the office of Moderator which he also sustained, visited the other Vaudois churches, and exercised superintendance over his co-pastors. ... the following treatises are submitted to the public attention; namely,- Letters respecting the Vaudois addressed to his Eminence Cardinal Pacca; - A Reply to the Bishop of Pinerolo's charge; - The Moderator's charge to his co-pastors; - A Letter to M. Ferrary, a Roman catholic priest; - and a late Waldensian Confession of Faith; - the whole, from the nature of the subjects they include, forming an "Historical Defence of the Waldenses." (from the Preface)
Beilby Porteus or Beilby Porteous D.D. was an Anglican Christian preacher, a Chaplain to King George, Bishop of Chester (1777) and Bishop of London. Porteus was also a leading abolitionist. Free Online Books: An 1785 Edition, Dublin, Ireland.
"As Jesus Christ is the sole Author of our Faith (Hebrews 12:2), those things, and those alone, which he taught himself, and commissioned his disciples to teach, are parts of our faith. What his doctrine was we find in no less than four accounts of his life and preaching given in the Gospels. To what belief his disciples converted men, we find in the Acts. What they taught men after their conversion, we read in the Epistles. These several books, which make up the New Testament, all Christians allow to contain an original, and undoubtedly true account of our religion. The only possible question is, Whether they contain a full and clear account. Now such a one they without question intended to give, for what could induce them designedly to give any other? Besides, St. Luke, in the very beginning of his gospel, tells us, that having a perfect understanding of those things which were believed among Christians, he had taken in his hand to set forth a declaration of them, that those he wrote to might know the certainty of what they had been instructed in. And St. John, in the conclusion of his, tells us, that though our Saviour did, and doubtless said also, many things that were not written in that book; yet these, says he, are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, are that believing ye might have life through his name (John 20:30-31)."
Q-R
S
Secker was a Protestant Christian Archbishop. Find this author under:
Porteus, Beilby - A Brief Confutation of the Errors of the Church of Rome
Stillingfleet, Edward (1635-1699) Edward Stillingfleet was a Protestant Christian Bishop of Worcester, a Preacher, and an Apologist. Free Online Books:
An 1845 Edition. "No great evil can prevail in the world, unless it be represented otherwise than it is; and all men are not competent judges of the colours of good and evil; therefore, when the designs of those who go about to deceive begin to be laid open, they then betake themselves to the fairest representations they can make of themselves, and hope that many will not see through their pretences."
"Even the Gentile idolaters, when they were charged by the Christians that they worshipped stocks and stones, complained they were misrepresented, for they were not such idiots to take things for gods which had neither life, nor sense, nor motion in them. And when they were charged with worshipping other gods as they did the Supreme, they desired their sense might not be taken from common prejudices, or vulgar practices, but from the doctrine of their philosophers; and they owned a sovereign worship due to him that was chief, and a subordinate and relative to some celestial beings, whom they made application to as mediators between him and them."
A 1677 Edition, London, England.
"I hope you will forgive me the not setting your Names before this Address, although I am not wholly a stranger to them: for however it be against the usual custom, yet you have reason to take it more kindly from me. I assure you, my design is, not to do any injury to your Persons, but only to let you and the world know, we are not altogether unacquainted with your present Principles, or Practices. And although, like the Plague, you walk in darkness, and do mischief; yet I intend only to set such marks and characters upon you, that when others see them, they may take the wind of you, and avoid the Infection. ... It may be you will be ready to ask me, if I account these Treatises such, why I venture to publish them. Because some Poisons lose their force when they are exposed to the open air: And it may do good to others, to let them understand what Doses you give in private to your Patients."
T
Rev. Jeremy Taylor was Chaplain to King Charles I and Lord Bishop of Down. Free Online Books:
A 1664 Edition, London.
Also find author under:
Sermons - Holy Living and Dying Together with Prayers containing the Whole Duty of a Christian
William Tyndale, or William Tindal, was an English Christian Reformer known as 'the Apostle of England' in the time of the Protestant Reformation. Tyndale was the translator of the first English New Testament from Greek (1526) and was martyred for this translation work and his apologetic writings in the defense of Biblical Christianity. Tyndale was hunted as a heretic, taken and imprisoned under the laws of the Church; after being condemned for heresy, he was formally stripped of his priesthood, strangled and then burned at the stake. Tyndale's English Translation is read yet today as the greater part of the King James Bible, first published in 1611. Free Online Books:
Originally published in 1531. An 1850 Edition.
"And thus are we come into this damnable ignorance and fierce wrath of God, through our own deserving; because, when the truth was told us, we had no love thereto. And to declare the full and set wrath of God upon us, our prelates whom we have exalted over us, to whom we have given almost all we had, have persuaded the worldly princes (to whom we have submitted ourselves, and given up our power) to devour up body and soul, and to keep us down in darkness, with violence of sword, and with all falsehood and guile; insomuch that, if any do but lift up his nose to smell after the truth, they swap him in the face with a fire-brand, to singe his smelling; or if he open one of his eyes once to look toward the light of God's word, they blear and daze his sight with their false juggling: so that if it were possible, though he were God's elect, he could not but be kept down, and perish for lack of knowledge of the truth."
Originally published in 1531. An 1850 Edition.
"He bade them work for that meat that should never perish, telling them that to believe in him whom God hath sent was the work of God; and whoso believeth in him, should never thirst nor hunger, but have life everlasting. Confer also this that followeth, and thou shalt see it plain, that his words be understood spiritually of the belief in his flesh crucified, and his blood shed; for which belief we be promised everlasting life, himself saying, 'Whoso believeth in me hath life everlasting.' Here, therefore, their question, 'How may this man give us his flesh to eat it?' - is solved; even when he gave his body to be broken, and his blood to be shed. And we eat and drink it indeed, when we believe stedfastly that he died for the remission of our sins."
Also find author under: Sermons - The Prophet Jonah with An Introduction Sermons - The Works of the English Reformers: William Tyndale and John Frith
Audio Books - The Prophet Jonah with an Introduction
U-V
W
William Watson was a Roman Catholic, Jesuit Priest trained at the Rheims College in France. Free Online Books: Originally published in 1601. An 1831 Edition with Preface and Notes by the Protestant Rev. Joseph Mendham, M.A. Originally published as "Important Considerations, which ought to move all true and sound Catholics, who are not wholly Jesuited, to acknowledge without all equivocations, ambiguities, or shiftings, that the proceedings of her Majesty, and of the State with them, since the beginning of her Highness's reign, have been both mild and merciful. Published by Sundry of us the Secular Priest, in dislike of many treatises, letters, and reports, which have been written and made in diverse places to the contrary: together with our opinion of a better course hereafter, for the promoting of the Catholic faith in England. Newly Imprinted 1601."
"The Contention (dear Catholics) betwixt the Secular Priests and the Jesuits, is known not to you alone, but to all our Catholic Friends in other Nations; to all our common Adversaries at home and abroad; to all or the greatest part of the Christian World, as we verily do imagine, and in some sort do know it for true. ... The intent of this Discourser in the Name of the Secular Priests in general is, not to impeach any one particular Person of the Catholic Laity, of Matters of Treason or State; but rather to excuse us all, as well those that have been abused by sinister inveigling persuasions to rush upon their ruins, as those that have been Actors, Abettors, Connivents or Fautors of their Arch-Plotter's practices."
Sir Francis White was a Protestant Christian Controversialist, a Doctor of Divinity (D.D.), and Chaplain to King James I. Free Online Books: A 1624 Edition.
"Most gracious, and religious sovereign, it is apparent, that the external tuition and protection of Orthodoxall Veritie, and Religion, next under the Almighty, does principally belong to Christian Princes, which are by office and vocation, the Lord’s Anointed, sons of the most High, and supreme Regents of this inferior world, under God. The Donates in times past denied the lawful authority of Christian Princes, in supervising and external governing Ecclesiastical causes, saying, Quid est Imperatori cum Ecclesia? What hath Imperial (or Regal) Majesty to do with the Church?"
John Wycliffe, or John Wyclif or John Wickliffe, was a Protestant Christian Reformer in England, sometimes refered to as the "Morning Star of the Reformation." Free Online Books:
An 1842 Edition. From 14th Century Manuscript preserved at the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. With an Introduction and Notes by James Henthorn Todd, D.D.
"It will naturally be expected that the following treatise should be introduced to the reader by some account of the manuscript from which it has been transcrived, and some statement of the grounds upon which it has been attributed to the pen of Wickliffe. The manuscript is preserved in the library of Trinity college, Dublin, among the valuable remains of ancient literature collected by the celebrated Archbishop Ussher, and presented by King Charles II. to the University."
X-Y
Z
| |||||||||||||