LOCKE, John.

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A Letter Concerning Toleration. The Second Edition Corrected; [bound with] — A Second Letter concerning Toleration; [and] — A Third Letter for Toleration, to the Author of the Third Letter concerning Toleration. First editions of the Second and Third Letters, second edition in English of the First, collecting in a single volume all the works on toleration published by Locke in his lifetime. Following Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Locke was moved to publish views he had previously circulated only in manuscript. Although intended primarily for Christians, and particularly for dissenting Protestants, the three Letters outline a hugely influential conception of the proper relationship between government and religion. For Locke, the state cannot and should not compel individuals to adopt particular faiths. Churches are re-conceived as voluntary societies which can be joined or left without incurring civil penalties - subject to the concerns of civil society and foreign influence.Locke's original Epistola de tolerantia (1689) was swiftly translated into English by his friend William Popple, who was responsible for the phrase, often attributed to Locke himself, "Absolute Liberty, Just and True Liberty, Equal and Impartial Liberty, is the thing that we stand in need of" (p. [iv]). In April 1690, an Oxford clergyman disputed the Letter's rejection of force, which prompted Locke to reply that summer, under an assumed identity, with the Second Letter, and then,

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