A Discourse Concerning Reason, With regard to Religion and Divine Revelation. Wherein is shewn, that reason either is, or else that it ought to be, a sufficient guide in matters of religion. Occasioned by the Lord Bishop of London’s Second Pastoral Letter...
London: Printed for T. Cox, 1731. First edition. The final five pages are publisher’s advertisements for thirty-five other works by Chubb. Some light foxing, but overall a very good, crisp copy. Disbound. Octavo. 83, [5] pp. Item #14334
Chubb (1679-1747), who was the son of a Salisbury maltster, was mostly self-taught. He was an able debater, taking part in theological and political controversies. Originally a disciple of Samuel Clarke and William Whiston, he developed into a deist. At one point he was considered on a par with Locke. His influence began to decline at the end of the eighteenth century. Edmund Burke spoke of him as being outdated, and Leslie Stephen associated him with “the decline of deism.” Stuart Brown, however, notes in the Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century British Philosophers that Chubb has attracted much attention from twentieth-century scholars.
See Thomas Bushnell’s study, The Sage of Salisbury: Thomas Chubb, 1679-1747 (1967).
Price: $350.00