Toleration

A Letter Concerning Toleration
by John Locke
1689
Translated by William Popple

Honoured Sir,
Since you are pleased to inquire what are my thoughts about the mutual
toleration of Christians in their different professions of religion, I must
needs answer you freely that I esteem that toleration to be the chief
characteristic mark of the true Church. For whatsoever some people
boast of the antiquity of places and names, or of the pomp of their
outward worship; others, of the reformation of their discipline; all, of
the orthodoxy of their faith -- for everyone is orthodox to himself --
these things, and all others of this nature, are much rather marks of men
striving for power and empire over one another than of the Church of
Christ. Let anyone have never so true a claim to all these things, yet if
he be destitute of charity, meekness, and good-will in general towards
all mankind, even to those that are not Christians, he is certainly yet
short of being a true Christian himself. "The kings of the Gentiles
exercise leadership over them," said our Saviour to his disciples, "but
ye shall not be so."[1] The business of true religion is quite another
thing. It is not instituted in order to the erecting of an external pomp,
nor to the obtaining of ecclesiastical dominion, nor to the exercising of
compulsive force, but to the regulating of men's lives, according to the
rules of virtue and piety. Whosoever will list himself under the banner
of Christ, must, in the first place and above all things, make war upon
his own lusts and vices. It is in vain for any man to unsurp the name of
Christian, without holiness of life, purity of manners, benignity and
meekness of spirit. "Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ,
depart from iniquity."[2] "Thou, when thou art converted, strengthen

thy brethren," said our Lord to Peter.[3] It would, indeed, be very hard
for one that appears careless about his own salvation to persuade me
that he were extremely concerned for mine. For it is impossible that
those should sincerely and heartily apply themselves to make other
people Christians, who have not really embraced the Christian religion
in their own hearts. If the Gospel and the apostles may be credited, no
man can be a Christian without charity and without that faith which
works, not by force, but by love. Now, I appeal to the consciences of
those that persecute, torment, destroy, and kill other men upon pretence
of religion, whether they do it out of friendship and kindness towards
them or no? And I shall then indeed, and not until then, believe they do
so, when I shall see those fiery zealots correcting, in the same manner,
their friends and familiar acquaintance for the manifest sins they
commit against the precepts of the Gospel; when I shall see them
persecute with fire and sword the members of their own communion
that are tainted with enormous vices and without amendment are in
danger of eternal perdition; and when I shall see them thus express their
love and desire of the salvation of their souls by the infliction of
torments and exercise of all manner of cruelties. For if it be out of a
principle of charity, as they pretend, and love to men's souls that they
deprive them of their estates, maim them with corporal punishments,
starve and torment them in noisome prisons, and in the end even take
away their lives -- I say, if all this be done merely to make men
Christians and procure their salvation, why then do they suffer
whoredom, fraud, malice, and such-like enormities, which (according
to the apostle)[4] manifestly relish of heathenish corruption, to
predominate so much and abound amongst their flocks and people?
These, and such-like things, are certainly more contrary to the glory of
God, to the purity of the Church, and to the salvation of souls, than any
conscientious dissent from ecclesiastical decisions, or separation from
public worship, whilst accompanied with innocence of life. Why, then,
does this burning zeal for God, for the Church, and for the salvation of
souls -- burning I say, literally, with fire and faggot -- pass by those
moral vices and wickednesses, without any chastisement, which are
acknowledged by all men to be diametrically opposite to the profession
of Christianity, and bend all its nerves either to the introducing of
ceremonies, or to the establishment of opinions, which for the most part

are about nice and intricate matters, that exceed the capacity of
ordinary understandings? Which of the parties contending about these
things is in the right, which of them is guilty of schism or heresy,
whether those that domineer or those that suffer, will then at last be
manifest when the causes