He laid his scruples on infant baptism before the Westminster assembly of divines, but got no satisfaction. Declining to baptise infants, he was removed from St. Gabriel's early in 1645, but appointed (before May) master of the Temple, on condition of not preaching on baptism. He published on this topic; for licensing one of his tracts, the parliamentary censor, John Bachiler, was attacked in the Westminster assembly (25 Dec. 1645) by William Gouge, D.D. [q. v.], and Stephen Marshall [q. v.] was appointed to answer the tract. As preacher at the Temple, Tombes directed his polemic against antinomianism. In 1646 he had an interview with Cromwell and gave him his books. His fellow-townsmen chose him to the perpetual curacy of Bewdley, then a chapelry in the parish of Ribbesford; his successor at the Temple, Richard Johnson, was approved by the Westminster assembly on 13 Oct. 1647.
At Bewdley Tombes organised a baptist church, which never exceeded twenty-two members (Baxter), of whom three became baptist preachers. He regularly attended Baxter's Thursday lecture at Kidderminster, and tried to draw Baxter, as he had already drawn Thomas Blake [q. v.], into a written discussion. Baxter would engage with him only in an oral debate, which took place before a crowded audience at Bewdley chapel on 1 Jan. 1649–50, and lasted from nine in the morning till five at night. Wood affirms that 'Tombes got the better of Baxter by far; ' Baxter himself says, 'How mean soever my own abilities were, yet I had still the advantage of a good cause.' The debate had the effect of causing Tombes to leave Bewdley, where he was succeeded in 1650 by Henry Oasland [q. v.] With Bewdley he had held for a time the rectory of Ross, Herefordshire; this he resigned on being appointed to the mastership of St. Catherine's Hospital, Ledbury, Herefordshire.
After his encounter with Baxter, Tombes's oral debates were numerous. In July 1652 he went to Oxford to dispute on baptism with Henry Savage, D.D. [q. v.] On the same topic he disputed at Abergavenny, on 5 Sept. 1653, with Henry Vaughan (1616?–1661?) and John Cragge. His pen was active against all opponents of his cause. He had not given up his claim to the vicarage of Leominster, and returned to it apparently in 1654, when he was appointed (20 March) one of Cromwell's 'triers.' Preaching at Leominster against quakers (26 Dec. 1656), one of his parishioners, Blashfield, a bookseller, retorted, 'If there were no anabaptist, there would be no quaker.' Against quakerism and popery he wrote tracts (1660), to which Baxter prefixed friendly letters.
At the Restoration Tombes came up to London, and wrote in favour of the royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil. Clarendon stood his friend. He conformed in a lay capacity, resigning his preferments and declining offers of promo- tion. After 1661 he lived chiefly at Salisbury, where his wife had property. Robert Sanderson (1587–1663) [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, held him in esteem, as did a later occupant of the same see, Thomas Barlow [q. v.] Clarendon, in 1664, introduced him to Charles II, who accepted a copy of Tombes's 'Saints no Smiters.' In July 1664 he was at Oxford, and offered to dispute in favour of his baptist views, but the challenge was not taken up. With Seth Ward [q. v.], bishop of Salisbury, he was on friendly terms. He communicated as an Anglican. Firmly holding his special tenet, he was always a courteous disputant, and a man of exceptional capacity and attainments.
He died at Salisbury on 22 May 1676, and was buried on 25 May in St. Edmund's churchyard. He was a dapper little man, with a keen glance. By his first wife he had a son John, born at Leominster on 26 Nov. 1636. His second wife, whom he married about 1658, was Elizabeth, widow of Wolstan Abbot of Salisbury.
He published: 1. 'Væ Scandalizantium; or a Treatise of Scandalizing,' Oxford, 1641, 8vo; with title 'Christ's Commination against Scandalizers,' 1641, 8vo (dedicated to Viscount Scudamore). 2. 'Iehovah Iireh . . . two Sermons in the Citie of Bristoll . . . March 14, 1642, with a short Narration of that . . . Plot,' 1643, 4to (8 May, dedicated to Fiennes). 3. 'Fermentum Pharisæorvm, or ... Wil-Worship,' 1643, 4to (1 July). 4. 'Anthropolatria,' 1645, 4to (9 May). 5. 'Two Treatises and an Appendix . . . concerning Infant Baptisme,' 1645, 4to (16 Dec.; includes an 'Examen' of Marshall's sermon on baptism). 6. 'An Apology ... for the Two Treatises,' 1646, 4to; 'Addition,' 1652, 4to. 7. 'An Antidote against the Venome of ... Richard Baxter,' 1650, 4to (31 May). 8. 'Precursor . . . to a large view of ... Infant Baptism,' 1652, 4to. 9. 'Joannis Tombes Beudleiensis Refutatio positionis Dris. Henrici Savage,' 1652, 4to. 10. 'Antipædobaptism,' 1652, 4to (28 Nov., dedicated to Cromwell); 2nd pt. 1654, 4to; 3rd pt. 1657, 4to (replies to twenty-three contemporary writers). 11. 'A Publick Dispute . . . J. Cragge and H. Vaughan,' 1654, 8vo. 12. 'A Plea for Anti-Pædobaptists,' 1654, 4to (26 May).
