On Baptism

Tertullian

  1. 1. Introduction. Origin of the Treatise
  2. 2. The Very Simplicity of God's Means of Working, a Stumbling-Block to the Carnal Mind
  3. 3. Water Chosen as a Vehicle of Divine Operation and Wherefore. Its Prominence First of All in Creation
  4. 4. The Primeval Hovering of the Spirit of God Over the Waters Typical of Baptism. The Universal Element of Water Thus Made a Channel of Sanctification. Resemblance Between the Outward Sign and the Inward Grace
  5. 5. Use Made of Water by the Heathen. Type of the Angel at the Pool of Bethsaida.
  6. 6. The Angel the Forerunner of the Holy Spirit. Meaning Contained in the Baptismal Formula
  7. 7. Of the Unction
  8. 8. Of the Imposition of Hands. Types of the Deluge and the Dove
  9. 9. Types of the Red Sea, and the Water from the Rock
  10. 10. Of John's Baptism
  11. 11. Answer to the Objection that The Lord Did Not Baptize.
  12. 12. Of the Necessity of Baptism to Salvation
  13. 13. Another Objection: Abraham Pleased God Without Being Baptized. Answer Thereto. Old Things Must Give Place to New, and Baptism is Now a Law
  14. 14. Of Paul's Assertion, that He Had Not Been Sent to Baptize
  15. 15. Unity of Baptism. Remarks on Heretical And Jewish Baptism
  16. 16. Of the Second Baptism — With Blood
  17. 17. Of the Power of Conferring Baptism
  18. 18. Of the Persons to Whom, and the Time When, Baptism is to Be Administered
  19. 19. Of the Times Most Suitable for Baptism
  20. 20. Of Preparation For, and Conduct After, the Reception of Baptism

Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life! A treatise on this matter will not be superfluous; instructing not only such as are just becoming formed (in the faith), but them who, content with having simply believed, without full examination of the grounds of the traditions, carry (in mind), through ignorance, an untried though probable faith. The consequence is, that a viper of the Cainite heresy, lately conversant in this quarter, has carried away a great number with her most venomous doctrine, making it her first aim to destroy baptism. Which is quite in accordance with nature; for vipers and asps and basilisks themselves generally do affect arid and waterless places. But we, little fishes, after the example of our ΙΧΘΥΣ Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently abiding in water; so that most monstrous creature, who had no right to teach even sound doctrine, knew full well how to kill the little fishes, by taking them away from the water!