Theologico-Political Treatise 1862

TRACTATUS THEOLOGICO-POLITICUS:

A CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE HISTORY, PURPOSE, AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES;

WITH

THE RIGHT TO

FREE THOUGHT AND FREE DISCUSSION

ASSERTED,

AND SHOWN TO BE NOT ONLY CONSISTENT BUT NECESSARILY BOUND UP WITH TRUE PIETY AND GOOD GOVERNMENT.

BY

BENEDICT DE SPINOZA,

FROM THE LATIN.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

"Hereby know we that we dwell in God, and God in us, because he hath given us of his spirit." — I JOHN iv. 18.

LONDON:

TRÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1862.

"It is not true that speculations upon these things have ever done harm or become injurious to the body politic. You must reproach, not the speculations, but the folly and tyranny of checking them." — ''Lessing. Education of the Human Race, Translation''. 12mo, London, 1858.

JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.

TO THE EDUCATED PUBLIC, THE PIOUS WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION, THE UNFETTERED IN THOUGHT, AND THE FEARLESS OF TRUTH, — FOR WHOM ALONE THE ORIGINAL WAS WRITTEN, THIS REPRODUCTION OF SPINOZA'S FAMOUS WORK IS INSCRIBED.