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Conclusion
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Conclusion
John Tombes, as the prototypical Anglican
Antipaedobaptist, remains a rogue elephant in the literary landscape of the
seventeenth century. This work has demonstrated the need for Tombes to
have his place in the history of ideas under a new and unique
classification.
In the Introduction and Chapter One it was shown how the existing historical denominators are insufficient for an historical figure like Tombes. He fits the requirements for the common understanding of antipaedobaptist but not in harmony with the usual subsets within the taxonomy used. "Anabaptist" is too broad and vague, packed with pejorative overtones. Tombes's ecclesiology precludes him from being named a Baptist within the ordinary connotations of that name. Since he had a positive doctrine of Baptism and argued vociferously for it, he cannot be categorised as an Abaptist. Therefore, for specificity, a new classification is neededAnglican Antipaedobaptist. Tombes, the person, was tolerated by his peers; Tombes, representing the position of an unbending antipaedobaptism, was not. There are ways to engage others on issues wherein ideas can be discussed without devolution into ad hominem rhetoric. Reasonable men may differ in reasonable ways in the search for truth. Chapter Two displays the personal history of Tombes and how he came to his divergent views. It demonstrates that Tombes was not an ideologue seeking to disrupt the status quo in order to make a name for himself but a man committed to a vow he had made before heavenly and earthly sovereigns.
Chapter Two also exhibits the vast literature Tombes and
those who engaged his ideas produced. It is not insignificant. Since
the dawn of the printing press, Tombes has more published pages
on baptism, its doctrine and practise than any other writer. Many
will disagree with his position; however, the sheer volume of his
literary corpus cries out for a place in the history of theological ideas. He
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Antipaedobaptism in the Thought of John Tombes
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should not be dismissed out of hand. All of the major views of
baptism were brought to bear upon Tombes's opinions. He was
not dismissed as an inexplicable novelty in his time; neither should he
be among modern expositors who deal with his era or these
theological matters.
In the first half of the seventeenth century, Catholicism
and Anglicanism found a portion of their legitimacy in the idea of
Apostolic Succession. Reformed denominations were seeking
alternative successions. Some Baptists sought historical continuity with
the Apostles through the practise of baptism
alone.1 The Reformational Paedobaptists needed a new basis for their belief and practise.
They went beyond the apostles and John, the one who baptised, to God
in the garden with Adam and Eve to produce Covenantal Successionism.
As religious freedoms were in the forefront of people's minds
in the 1640s and 1650s, Tombes was one who pushed out the
boundaries to expand religious freedoms in thought and practise. His
theology was engaged by the polemicists while his learning was used
to confirm men into ministry. He had the respect of his peers for
his learning and orthodoxy, excepting, perhaps, the single issue of
baptism.
Chapter Three exhibits the cautious character of Tombes.
He did not change his views in quick, unguarded, immature
reactions, he sought to understand the issues over time with much
reflection and interaction with others in the academic world, his community
of faith. He sought to believe and do what God had revealed in
Scripture or what could be deduced by good and necessary inference.
His desire not to pollute the worship of God with the inventions of
man drove his puritanical perspective. Tombes was a consistent
Puritan, thus, the structure of his polemic.
Tombes showed himself to be serious-minded within his
theological craft. He made a vow to reform the Church by the Word
of God alone. To this end he set his mind and analytical abilities.
Nothing would go undoubted; all would be scrutinised. He used all of
the tools obtained through his education at Oxford and ministry to
examine "right baptisme". In psychological terms, Tombes might be
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Conclusion
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called, "doggedly obsessive" or at least preoccupied with his
personal quest for objective truth within his subjective experiences
as regards baptism.
Chapter Four points out Tombes's linguistic and
exegetical abilities. He used the reformed principle, the analogy of faith,
to compare Scripture text with other Scripture texts in order to
discern one consistent meaning of the disputed passages. The whole of
a doctrine was the sum of its partsnothing more, nothing less.
Tombes sought to understand the parts in order to construct an entire house
of truth built on a strong, authoritative foundation. He displayed
the fruit and the method of his understanding. In eleven arguments,
he presented and refuted the perspective of his theological
opponents while defending his own views on the matter.
The theological starting point for Tombes was to be found
in the simple elegance of the syllogism. His analyses dealt usually
with the middle term as he examined all that others proposed. Is a
belief or practise found in or logically deduced from the Scriptures?
This question alone was his motivation driving his concern.
Chapter Five deals with Tombes's theological argumentation.
Herein he drew together ideas from different texts to present
coherent ideas. In these five arguments, he collates a basic
theological position essential to his theology. He took the basic exegetical
blocks to design and give shape to his theological construction. In
these arguments, he attacks the essential elements of
Covenantal Paedobaptism.
Tombes's theological arguments give credence to the
need for his place in intellectual history. He offered a distinctive point
of view. He was perceived to be an innovator by others. Yet, he
saw himself as recovering what had been lost in previous centuries.
Tombes's vision was to complete the Reformation of the
National Church and her theological opinions. One man stood against a
vast army with weapons of words printed on paper and spoken from
behind pulpits.
Chapter Six shows Tombes's greatest strengthhis
historical analysis and use of antiquity. He examined the history of bap
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Antipaedobaptism in the Thought of John Tombes
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tism from the time of John the Baptiser down to his own age.
He engaged the works of the Church Fathers, the critical apparata,
and other writers to understand and use the ancient writings for his
position. He used these texts to show the historical aspects of the
debate and the theological relevance of historical materials. Tombes's
use of these texts was powerful enough to elicit a response from
John Owen, the Vice Chancellor at Oxford University and one of
England's most well-known Puritan
theologians.2
Tombes is worthy of the title "Divine" as he
demonstrated his command of all the tools of his theological trade. Exegesis,
theology, history and the sub-disciplines within those disciplines
were brought to the court of inquiry to pass verdict on the opinions of
his day. He was more than a single man riding one issue into the ground.
He was a student of all kinds of knowledge and used it all in
his singular pursuit on the issue of baptism.
Chapter Seven portrays the major weakness of Tombes
in formulating practical arguments against paedobaptism. It also
shows a great strength. These arguments show the human side of the
controversy. These arguments are a mixture of insight and innuendo.
Many of them could be turned upon the Antipaedobaptists a
generation or two later. The insight is found in the practical use of
Matthew 28:19-20 as the positive institution of baptism for those who are
disciples. This was the all-important text to supply the middle term
in Tombes's foundational theological syllogism. It became his
theological starting point for his positive doctrine of baptism.
Simply stated, it was to baptise all who heard the Gospel and were found
to have faith actually. This was the all-important X (where X is
any belief or practise) for his middle term.
In another context, Richard Muller expounds on the
importance of the middle term for theology:
These general declarations concerning the instrumental or organic use of
reason in articuli mixti are further qualified in the Reformed scholastic view
of the proper construction of syllogistic arguments in which both faith and
reason provide elements of the proof. In such syllogisms, reason cannot be
the foundation and norm upon which the conclusion rests but only the
instrument or means by which a truth latent in the foundation or norm of theology is
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Conclusion
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elicited. In a syllogism, the foundation for all argument is the "middle
term," the common ground shared by the major and minor propositions. In
theology, "the middle term of the syllogism is not taken from reason, but from the
scripture."3
Tombes used the tools of learning to present respected authority
to which he submitted willingly and expected others to do the same.
Tombes's use of a rigid methodology shows him to be a
man of his times. He used the prevailing method to present his case.
He remains an excellent example of Reformed Orthodoxy or
Reformed Scholasticism using the structures of classic thought in the
practise of theology. Added to this methodology was a rigid,
unwavering commitment to the authority of the Christian Scriptures, the
source of his middle term. Agree or disagree with his conclusions,
Tombes represents a man obsessed to discover truth as an objective
reality within his experience in life. His brilliance cries out for clarity
and prominence rather than obscurity and insignificance.
Chapter Eight is an overview of the reaction of
Tombes's contemporaries and near-contemporaries to Tombes's thought.
They considered his ideas to be weighty enough to attract their time
and attention. All of the major works on baptism in the middle
thirty years of the seventeenth century were written to interact with Tombes.
This is more evidence of the need to recover a place of
prominence for him.
Marshall and Baxter produced multiple volumes in their
attempt to answer Tombes. They did not merely dismiss him as a
deranged thinker.
All Paedobaptists descending from the Puritan model in
English-speaking lands and within Scottish Presbyterianism owe
their foundational theological heritage to the Westminster Assembly
of Divines. The Houses of Commons and Lords accepted
the Westminster Confession of Faith as the theological standard in
England in 1648. The Scottish General Assembly confirmed it as
their statement of the faith the next year. The reaction to Tombes in
pulpit and print demonstrated the true eminence he enjoyed in the debate.
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Antipaedobaptism in the Thought of John Tombes
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The statement of the Confession
had specificity lacking in previous confessional statementsalthough it allowed for diverse
understanding via the road of accommodation. Tombes was the one who
shaped the debate which forced the Covenantal Paedobaptists to think
through their position. His influence upon his time is immense yet to
this point unstated and not presented in a comprehensive manner.
Tombes's theological acumen, his doggedly persistent
exchanges, his tireless pen and his scholastical methodology,
considered along with his theological innovations (from a certain
perspective) as regards baptism, require a new category for this prince
among the thinkers of his day. John Tombes was unique. He remains
the prototypical Anglican Antipaedobaptist who deserves a place in
the pantheon of Puritan and Anglican theologians.
In addition, Tombes remains for the modern, or
post-modern reader, a lesson in legitimate toleration. Tombes was accepted by
his contemporaries with great respect for his person, learning and
attainments, while they engaged his ideas with all of their learning
and intellectual might. In the climate of change in seventeenth
century England, all survived. Tombes gave a theological legacy
to Anglicanism and to the Particular, Calvinistic or Reformed
Baptist movement. To Anglicanism he bequeathed a legacy of
acceptance and conscience within a framework of legitimate cooperation in
the National Church. To the Particular Baptists he left a legacy of
sound theological reasoning within the context of Reformed
Scholasticism with a high view of the inherent authority of what God has spoken.
He was unafraid of reason. He was not a naïve fideist. He
was engaged in the service of theology, the queen of the sciences,
using reason as her handmaiden. He was a curious yet courageous
man full of faith and confidence for the future. A thoroughgoing
reformer as one born out of time, was John Tombes, Anglican Antipaedobaptist.
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Conclusion
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Notes for Conclusion:
1. John Spittlehouse and John More,
A Vindication of the continued succession of the Primitive Church of Jesus Christ (now
scandalously termed Anabaptist) from the Apostles unto this present
time, London, 1652. This was the first attempt to demonstrate
Baptist Successionism. The authors were Seventh-Day Baptists. They
argue for the perpetuity of baptism and a Saturday sabbath in
harsh rhetoric against the "Antichrist" and antichristian expressions of
the previous 1200 years. Ultimately, the work devolves into a
diatribe against written church histories in favor of an oral history passed
on by the underground church, or church in the wilderness.
2. John Owen, The Works of John Owen, Vol.
16. The Church and the Bible. "A Vindication of Two Passages in Irenaeus against
the Exceptions of Mr Tombs", pp. 263f. Edinburgh, The Banner
of Truth Trust, Fifth printing, 1995.
3. Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: Vol.
One; Prolegomena to Theology, Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Book
House, 1987, p. 246. The last quotation is taken from Turretin,
Institues of Eclentic Theology, vol. I, viii, 15-16.
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