John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration (1685) Background. Locke’s separation of church and state stood at the beginning of a… John Locke was born into trying times especially as a protestant. Have you seen what Locke believed Locke wrote his Letter Concerning Toleration to his Dutch friend Philip von Limborch while he was living as an exile in the Dutch Republic, which had been founded as a secular state … Now, though the divisions that are amongst sects should be allowed to be never so obstructive of the salvation of souls; yet, nevertheless, One of the most influential philosophical thinkers of enlightenment. As the theory of empiricism goes, what we see and experiment reflects on what we do and how we view the world. First Letter Concerning Toleration/5 ther and mother, separate from the public assemblies and ceremonies of his country, or whomsoever or whatsoever else he relinquishes, will not then be judged a heretic. In his famous piece “A Letter Concerning Toleration” (1689), John Locke argued that tolerance is indeed a Christian virtue and that the state as a civic association should be concerned only with civic interests, not spiritual ones.