Gilbert Tennent sermons 8, "De Baptismo" (On baptism), 1743 or 1744

Gilbert Tennent sermons 8, "De Baptismo" (On baptism), 1743 or 1744

1743/1744

PHS.TennentSermons008

Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) was an Irish-American Presbyterian clergyman, and one of the leaders of the Great Awakening.

This sermon, which Tennent preached in 1743 or 1744, is a rumination on Acts 10:47, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" Tennent discusses the history of baptism, and compares adults requesting baptism and infants who are allowed the rite.

Pennsylvania--Philadelphia

Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA

Presbyterian Historical Society

42 pages

tiff

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

eng

Text

De Baptismo (On baptism) discusses who may or may not be baptised, according to Question 95 of the Shorter Catechism decreed by the Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643-1653), whose enactments were adopted whole by the Church of Scotland.   In essence, adult pagans may not be baptised until they have confessed the faith, after which they are brought into covenant with God and receive the Seal, the outward sign of the Covenant.  Children of those baptised, even infants, may be baptised. There follow arguments from the Bible allowing infant baptism because the children have the Holy Spirit and believing parents, which help free them from original sin. 

 Early Christianity was close enough to the Jewish world and Jewish origins; there follows a lengthy and close-argued discussion of baptism as a sign as circumcision is for Jewish infants and an interest in the conversion of adult Jews, the Covenant of Grace applicable in both beliefs, in one by Law, in the other by faith. 

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