I had rather prevent my peoples ruin then rule over them; nor am I so ambitious of that Dominion which is but My Right, as of their happiness; If it could expiate or countervail such a way of obtaining it, by the highest injuries of subjects committed against their Soveraign.
Yet I had rather suffer all the miseries of life, and die many deaths, then shamefully to desert, or dishonourable to betray My own just Rights and Soveraignty; thereby to gratifie the ambition, or justifie the malice of my enemies; between whose malice, and other mens mistakes, I put as great a difference, as between an ordinary Ague and the Plague; or the Itch of Novelty, and the Leprosie of Disloyalty.
As Liars need have good memories, so malicious persons need good inventions; that their calumnies may fit every mans fancy; and what their reproaches want of truth, they may make up with numbers and shew.
My patience (I thank God) wil better serve Me to bear, and My charity to forgive, then My leisure to answer the many false Aspersions which some men have cast upon Me.
Did I not more consider My Subjects Satisfaction, then my owne Vindication, I should never have given the malice of some men that pleasure, as to see me take notice of, or remember what they say, or object.
I would leave the Authors to be punished by their own evill manners, and seared Consciences, which will, I believe, in a shorter time then they be aware of, both confute and revenge all those black and false Scandals which they have cast on me; And make the world see, there is as little truth in them, as there was little worth in the broaching of them, or Civility, (I need not say Loyalty) in the not suppressing of them; whose credit and reputation, even with the people, shall ere long be quite blasted by the breath of that same fornace of popular obloquy, and detraction, which they have studied to heat and inflame to the highest degree of infamy, and wherein they have sought to cast and consume My Name and Honor.
First, nothing gave me more cause to suspect, and search mine own innocencie, then when I observed so many forward to engage against me, who had made great professions of singular piety; For this gave to Vulgar minds so bad a reflection upon me and my Cause, as if it had been impossible to adhere to me, and not withall part from God; to think or speak well of me, and not to blaspheme him; so many were perswaded that these two were utterly inconsistent, to be at once Loyall to Me, and truly Religious toward God.
Not but that I had (I thank God) many with me, which were both learned and Religious, (much above that ordinary size, and that Vulgar proportion wherein some men glory so much) who were so well satisfied in the cause of my sufferings, that they chose rather to suffer with me, then forsake me.
Nor is it strange, that so religious Pretensions as were used against me, should be to many well-minded men a great temptation to oppose me; especially, being urged by such popular Preachers as think it no sin to lie for God, and what they please to call Gods Cause, cursing all that will not curse with them; looking so much at, and crying up the goodnesse of the end propounded, that they consider not the lawfulness of the means used nor the depth of the mischief, chiefly plotted and intended.