Chubb, THOMAS

Chubb, THOMAS, an English deist, who wrote on religious questions during the first half of the 18th century, was born at East-Harnham near Salisbury in 1679. His father, who had been a maltster, died early, consequently his children were poorly educated and early set to work. Thomas was first apprenticed to a glover in Salisbury, but his eyesight becoming weak, he became an assistant to a tallow-chandler, in which employment he died in 1747. He had already contrived to pick up considerable learning, when a perusal of the 'historical preface' to Whiston's Primitive Christianity Revived impelled him to write his own tract, The Supremacy of the Father Asserted, which Whiston helped him to publish in 1715. Encouraged by the patronage of Sir Joseph Jekyll and others, he continued to write, and a quarto volume of his tracts, published in 1730, made his name known to everybody. His opinions drifted nearer and nearer to deism, yet he went regularly to his parish church and regarded the mission, if not the person, of Christ as divine. Unfortunately his learning was far inferior to his natural ability, and his teaching lacks distinctness and consistency. His principal works are—A Discourse concerning Reason . . . a sufficient Guide in matters of Religion (1731); The True Gospel of Jesus Christ Asserted (1738), followed by a defence against the critics; An Enquiry into the Ground and Foundation of Religion, where- in it is shown that Religion is founded on Nature (1738); and a Discourse on Miracles (1741). The best statement of his views is contained in his Posthumous Works (2 vols. 1748).