ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on Locke's reply to Proast, which he provides in his second, third and fourth Letters Concerning Toleration. This reply extends to hundreds of pages, and as Locke's strategy, within these pages, is to respond to each of Proast's letters, almost line by line, the result is often repetitive, prolix and verbose. The chapter focuses on Locke's criticism of the content and structure of what he calls Proast's 'Method', Proast's advocacy of force, applied 'indirectly' and 'at a distance', for 'promoting True Religion and the Salvation of Souls'. In abandoning the 'rationality argument', Locke in no way assumed that this left him devoid of other arguments to advance in favour of toleration. Locke's attempt to reconcile these two sources, God and man, to the origin of Commonwealths, arises as a late response to Proast, in particular, to Proast's objection to the following passage in Locke's Second Letter Concerning Toleration.