Thomas Chubb

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

an English Deist, was born at East Harnham, a village near Salisbury, in 1679. His father dying, left his family poor, and Chubb was apprenticed to a glover in 1694. At this trade, and that of tallow-chandler, he supported himself, and at the same time cultivated his uncommon natural ability by diligent study. He died at Salisbury, Feb. 3, 1746. His first work, which appeared in 1715, was entitled The Supremacy of the Father asserted (8vo), and denied the divinity of Christ. It was followed by a series of publications, in which his skepticism was more and more fully developed.

Among them are Inquiries concerning Liberty of Conscience and Sin (Lond. 1717, 8vo); and a great number of tracts on authority, human nature, miracles, etc. He was largely involved in controversy with Warburton, Stebbing, Fleming, and others. His posthumous tracts were published in 2 vols. 8vo, 1748; and were answered by Fleming, in True Deism the Basis of Christianity; or, Observation on Chubb's posthumous Works; and by Leland (View of Deistical Writers, vol. 1). "Chubb was a working man, endowed with strong native sense, who manifested the same inclination to meddle with the deep subject of religion which afterwards marked the character of Thomas Paine and others, who influenced the lower orders later in the century. In his general view of religion, Chubb denied all particular providence, and, by necessary consequence, the utility of prayer, save for its subjective value as having a reflex benefit on the human heart.

He was undecided as to the fact of the existence of a revelation, but seemed to allow its possibility. He examined the three great forms of religion which professed to depend upon a positive revelation, Judaism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. The claims of the first he wholly rejected, on grounds similar to those explained by Morgan, as incompatible with the moral character of God. In reference to the second he anticipated the modern opinions on Mohammedanism by asserting that its victory was impossible if it had not contained truth which the human spirit needed, In examining the third he attacked, like Morgan, the evidence of miracles and prophecy, and asserted the necessity of moral right and wrong as the ground of the interpretation of Scripture" (Farrar, Critical History of Free Thought, p. 142). There is a full account of Chubb, with the opinions of various writers concerning him, in the Biographia Britannica, 3. 521-532.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

An English Deist, born near Salisbury; he regarded Christ as a divine teacher, but held reason to be sovereign in matters of religion, yet was on rational grounds a defender of Christianity; had no learning, but was well up in the religious controversies of the time, and bore his part in them creditably (1679-1746).