PHILADELPHIA, PRINTED;

It has been the scheme of the Christian church, and of all the other invented systems of religion, to hold man in ignorance of the Creator, as it is of Government to hold man in ignorance of his rights.

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity.

A thing which everybody is required to believe, requires that the proof and evidence of it should be equal to all, and universal; and as the public visibility of this last related act was the only evidence that could give sanction to the former part, the whole of it falls to the ground, because that evidence never was given.

in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground..

The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud.

But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons.

and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all.

EVERY national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals.

which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us

Ye that oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government.

But where, says some, is the King of America? I’ll tell you. Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain.

that in America THE LAW IS KING.

Securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; with such other matter as is necessary for a charter to contain.

A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz. two for each colony.

In the next Congress, let a colony be taken by lot from twelve only, omitting that colony from which the president was taken in the former Congress, and so proceeding on till the whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation.

If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is because no plan is yet laid down.

But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but independence, i.e. a continental form of government, can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars.

Emigrants of property will not choose to come to a country whose form of government hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance

England consults the good of THIS country, no farther than it answers her OWN purpose.

Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us?

We may be as effectually enslaved by the want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws made for us in England.

America to itself.

but there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.

There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.

The business of it will soon be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us.

Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God’s sake, let us come to a final separation, and not leave the next generation to be cutting throats, under the violated unmeaning names of parent and child.

It is not in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer America, if she do not conquer herself by DELAY and TIMIDITY.

sycophant

posterity

as we are running the next generation into debt

Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never the design of Heaven

It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do, while by her dependence on Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of British politics.

Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders.

therefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.

and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.

France and Spain never were, nor perhaps ever will be our enemies as AMERICANS, but as our being the subjects of GREAT BRITAIN.

that her motive was INTEREST not ATTACHMENT; that she did not protect us from OUR ENEMIES on OUR ACCOUNT, but from HER ENEMIES on HER OWN ACCOUNT, from those who had no quarrel with us on any OTHER ACCOUNT, and who will always be our enemies on the SAME ACCOUNT

and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive

The commerce, by which she hath enriched herself, are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty.

the commencement of hostilities

but of a continent

and the period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resource, decide this contest;