"A Letter Considering Toleration" - читать интересную книгу автора (Locke John)

all manner of revenge, even after repeated provocations and multiplied
injuries, how much more ought they who suffer nothing, who have had no
harm done them, forbear violence and abstain from all manner of
ill-usage towards those from whom they have received none! This
caution and temper they ought certainly to use towards those. who mind
only their own business and are solicitous for nothing but that
(whatever men think of them) they may worship God in that manner which
they are persuaded is acceptable to Him and in which they have the
strongest hopes of eternal salvation. In private domestic affairs,
in the management of estates, in the conservation of bodily health,
every man may consider what suits his own convenience and follow
what course he likes best. No man complains of the ill-management of
his neighbour's affairs. No man is angry with another for an error
committed in sowing his land or in marrying his daughter. Nobody
corrects a spendthrift for consuming his substance in taverns. Let any
man pull down, or build, or make whatsoever expenses he pleases,
nobody murmurs, nobody controls him; he has his liberty. But if any
man do not frequent the church, if he do not there conform his
behaviour exactly to the accustomed ceremonies, or if he brings not
his children to be initiated in the sacred mysteries of this or the
other congregation, this immediately causes an uproar. The
neighbourhood is filled with noise and clamour. Everyone is ready to
be the avenger of so great a crime, and the zealots hardly have the
patience to refrain from violence and rapine so long till the cause be
heard and the poor man be, according to form, condemned to the loss of
liberty, goods, or life. Oh, that our ecclesiastical orators of
every sect would apply themselves with all the strength of arguments
that they are able to the confounding of men's errors! But let them
spare their persons. Let them not supply their want of reasons with
the instruments of force, which belong to another jurisdiction and
do ill become a Churchman's hands. Let them not call in the
magistrate's authority to the aid of their eloquence or learning, lest
perhaps, whilst they pretend only love for the truth, this their
intemperate zeal, breathing nothing but fire and sword, betray their
ambition and show that what they desire is temporal dominion. For it
will be very difficult to persuade men of sense that he who with dry
eyes and satisfaction of mind can deliver his brother to the
executioner to be burnt alive, does sincerely and heartily concern
himself to save that brother from the flames of hell in the world to
come.

In the last place, let us now consider what is the magistrate's duty
in the business of toleration, which certainly is very considerable.

We have already proved that the care of souls does not belong to the
magistrate. Not a magisterial care, I mean (if I may so call it),
which consists in prescribing by laws and compelling by punishments.
But a charitable care, which consists in teaching, admonishing, and
persuading, cannot be denied unto any man. The care, therefore, of
every man's soul belongs unto himself and is to be left unto