Search Modes
- Exact phrase Finds the exact words in order — best for doctrine names, author names, or known phrases. Default.
- All words Every word must appear somewhere in the book, not necessarily together — good when exact phrase returns too few results.
- Any word Any matching word qualifies — broadest results, useful for topic browsing.
Full-Text Search Tips
- Search by author:
John Owen, Thomas Watson, Richard Baxter
- Search by doctrine:
imputed righteousness, covenant of grace
- If you get too few results, switch to All words or shorten the phrase
- If you get too many, switch to Exact phrase or add more specific words
- Click See in context on any excerpt to read the full page and navigate surrounding pages
Verse Search
All formats are accepted and auto-normalized — Arabic and Roman numerals return identical results:
- Standard:
John 3:16 | Roman numerals: John iii.16
- Psalms:
Ps 119:105 | Puritan style: Ps. cxix.105
- Epistles:
1 Cor 13:13 | 1 Cor xiii.13
- Separators: colon, period, or space all work —
3:16, 3.16, 3 16
- Short forms:
Jn, Mk, Lk, Mt, Rom, Rev, Heb, etc.
- Click any result to search that book in the full-text index
Known Limitations
- About 624 of the 2,569 books are scanned images — they have no extractable text and will not appear in full-text or verse search results
- Verse search covers references cited in the text of each book, not necessarily the verse itself being quoted verbatim
- Very short abbreviations without a trailing letter may not parse (e.g.
Joh. needs to be John or Jn)