It is not the farcical benedictions of a bishop, nor the cringing hypocrisy of a court of chaplains, nor the formality of an act of Parliament, that can change guilt into innocence, or make the punishment one pang the less.
Paine critiques the power of religious and political institutions, asserting they cannot alter the moral reality of guilt or mitigate its consequences.
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He must now show that every one in the line of hereditary succession was a Solomon, or his title is not good to be a king.
He writes neither in the character of a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but in the fawning character of that creature known in all countries, and a friend to none--a courtier.
I know the value of moral instruction, and I have seen the danger of the contrary.