And if the example of old Rome (where so many
different opinions, gods and ways of worship were promiscuously tolerated) be
of any weight, we have reason to imagine that no religion can be suspected to
the state of ill intention to it, till the government first by partial usage of
them, different from that of the rest of the subjects, declare its ill
intentions to its professors, and so make a state business of it. And if any rational man can imagine that force
and compulsion can at any time be the right way to get an opinion or religion
out of the world, or to break a party of men that unite in the profession of
it, this I dare affirm: that it is the worst, the last to be used, and with the
greatest caution, for these reasons:
(1)
Because it brings that upon a man
which, that he might be freed from is the only reason why he is member of the
commonwealth, viz., violence. For, were
there no fear of violence, there would be no government in the world, nor any
need of it.
(2) Because the magistrate, in using force, does in part cross what he
pretends to do, which is the safety of all.
For, the preservation, as much as possible, of the property, quiet, and
life of every individual being his duty, he is obliged not to disturb or
destroy some for the quiet and safety of the rest, till it hath been tried
whether there be not ways to save all.
For, so far as he undoes or destroys the safety of any of his subjects
for the security of the rest, so far as he opposes his own design, which is
professed, and ought to be only for preservation, to which even the meanest
have a title. ‘Twould be but an uncharitable as well as unskillful way of a
cure, and such as nobody would use or consent to, to cut off so much as an
ulcered toe, though tending to a gangrene, till other gentler remedies have
proved unsuccessful, though it be a part as low as the earth and far distant
from the head. …[1]
Locke, “An
Essay on Toleration” (1667)
[1] John Locke, Political Essays, ed. Mark Goldie (Cambridge; Cambridge University
Press, 2006), pp. 149,150.
