The truth is, he died as he had lived. Some ministers were impolite
enough to visit him against his will. Several of them he ordered
from his room. A couple of Catholic priests, in all the meekness of
hypocrisy, called that they might enjoy the agonies of a dying friend
of man. Thomas Paine, rising in his bed, the few embers of expiring life
blown into flame by the breath of indignation, had the goodness to curse
them both. His physician, who seems to have been a meddling fool, just
as the cold hand of death was touching the patriot's heart, whispered
in the dull ear of the dying man: "Do you believe, or do you wish to
believe, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" And the reply was: "I
have no wish to believe on that subject." These were the last remembered
words of Thomas Paine. He died as serenely as ever Christian passed
away. He died in the full possession of his mind, and on the very brink
and edge of death proclaimed the doctrines of his life.