It requires but a very small glance of thought to perceive that although laws made in one generation often continue in force through succeeding generations, yet they continue to derive their force from the consent of the living.
In "Rights of Man," Paine argues that the legitimacy of laws across generations ultimately rests on the ongoing consent of the living population.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
Where these can have the opportunity of acting, opposition dies with fear, or crumbles away by conviction.
It serves to keep up deceitful expectations which prevent people from looking into the defects and abuses of government.
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.