ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at sermons on confirmation to discover from the genre the eighteen-century Anglican understanding of the rite. This chapter looks at sermons on confirmation from different contexts and with different approaches. The sermons prior to confirmation show a clear understanding of the rite as rooted in scripture, in accordance with the ancient church and of much benefit to those who participate. There were a number of different contexts for the confirmation sermon. The pastoral practice was for the bishop to send out information notifying of his confirmation tour. Parish clergy then preached sermons about confirmation to exhort people to renew their baptismal covenant. The sermons are clear that confirmation is a biblically justifiable practice; indeed the way the preachers use the biblical texts makes clear they see them as an apostolic ordinance. The sermons in a confirmation continue the broad theological approach of the baptismal covenant and of the renewal of that covenant in confirmation.
