This my confidence of them, may dis-arm & overcom them; my rendring my person to them, may engage their affection to me, who have oft professed, They fought not against me, but for me.
I must now resolve the riddle of their Loyalty: and give them opportunity to let the world see, they mean not what they do, but what they say.
Yet must God be my chiefest Guard; and my Conscience both my Counsellor and my Comforter: Though I put my body into their hands, yet I shall reserve my soul to God and my self; nor shall any necessities compell me, to desert mine honour, or swerve from my Judgement.
What they fought to take by force, shall now be given them in such a way of unusuall confidence of them, as may make them ashamed not to be really such as they ought, and professed to be.
God sees it not enough to desert me of all Military power to defend my Self, but to put me upon using their power, who seem to fight against me, yet ought in duty to defend me.
So various are all humane affairs, & so necessitous may the state of Princes be, that their greatest danger may be in their supposed safety, and their safety in their supposed danger.
I must now leave those that have Adhered to me, and apply to those that have Opposed me; this method of Peace may be more prosperous then that of War, both to stop the effusion of bloud, & to close those wounds already made: and in it I am no less solicitous for my Friends safety, then mine own; chusing to venture my Self upon further hazards, rather then expose their resolute Loyaltie to all extremities.
It is some skil in play to know when a game is lost; better fairly to give over, then to contest in vain.
I must now study to re-inforce my Judgment, and fortifie my mind with Reason and Religion, that I may not seem to offer up my Souls libertie, or make my Conscience their Captive; who ought at first to have used Arguments, not Arms, to have perswaded my consent to their demands.