Thomas Chubb

Thomas Chubb (29 September 1679 – 8 February 1747) was a lay English Deist writer born near Salisbury.

[2] Chubb's views on free will and determinism, expressed in A Collection of Tracts on Various Subjects (1730), were extensively criticised by Jonathan Edwards in Freedom of the Will (1754).

The death of his father in 1688 cut short his education, and in 1694 he was apprenticed to a glover in Salisbury, but subsequently entered the employment of a tallow-chandler.

[4] Chubb spent some years living and working in London at the house of Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls.

However, he was drawn back to Salisbury, where by the kindness of friends he was enabled to devote the rest of his days to his studies.

[5] In 1734 came four tracts of his attacking the common theory of inspiration, arguing that the resurrection of Christ was no proof of his divine mission and criticising the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac.

[5] In 1738 Chubb published The True Gospel of Jesus Christ asserted, which provoked various attacks, including one from Ebenezer Hewlett.

The last work that Chubb published himself was Four Dissertations (1746), attacking some Old Testament passages with a freedom that gave wide offence.

The purpose of prayer was to render someone "a suitable and proper object of God's special care and love.

It naturally draws forth our souls in filial fear, in hope and trust, in love, delight, and joy in God; and creates in us a just concern to please him, and to approve ourselves in his sight; and consequently to put on that purity and piety, humility and charity which is the spirit and practice of true Christianity.