Choice D is the best answer. In lines 41-43("Every...it"), Paine asserts that "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and genera-tions which preceded it." He later states that deceased citizens of a state should no longer have "any authority in directing who shall be its governors, or how its government shall be organized, or how administered" (lines 61-63,"he... administered"). Paine doesn't believe, in other words, that the decisions of previous generations should dictate the conditions of modern life and government.
Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because they do not accurately characterize the way Paine views historical precedents.