As to the
authorship of the Pentateuch, he arrived at the conclusion that it
was written long after Moses, but that Moses may have written some
books from which it was compiled--as, for example, those which are
mentioned in the Scriptures, the _Book of the Wars of God_, the _Book
of the Covenant_, and the like--and that the many repetitions and
contradictions in the various books show a lack of careful editing
as well as a variety of original sources. Spinoza then went on to
throw light into some other books of the Old and New Testaments,
and added two general statements which have proved exceedingly
serviceable, for they contain the germs of all modern broad
churchmanship; and the first of them gave the formula which was
destined in our own time to save to the Anglican Church a large
number of her noblest sons: this was, that "sacred Scripture
_contains_ the Word of God, and in so far as it contains it is
incorruptible"; the second was, that "error in speculative
doctrine is not impious.
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