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XXII. Vpon His MAJESTIES leaving Oxford, and going to the SCOTS.
ALtho God hath given Me Three Kingdoms, yet in these He hath not now left Me any place where I may with safety and Honor rest My Head; shewing Me that Himself is the safest Refuge, and the strongest Tower of Defence, in which I may put My Trust.
In these Extremities I look not to man so much as to God: He will have it thus; that I may wholly cast My self, and My now distressed Affairs upon his Mercy, who hath both the hearts and hands of all men in his dispose.
What Providence denies to Force, it may grant to Prudence: Necessity is now My Counsellor, and commands Me to study My Safety by a disguised withdrawing from My chiefest Strength, and adventuring upon their Loyalty who first began my Trou∣bles. Haply God may make them a means honourably to compose them.
This My Confidence of them may disarm and overcome them: My rendring My Person to them may engage their Affections 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. Tho I put my Body into their hands, yet I shall reserve My Soul to God and My self; nor shall any Necessities compel Me to desert mine Honour, or swerve from My Judgment.
What they sought to take by Force, shall now be given them in such a way of un∣usual 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 deprive 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 human affairs, and so necessitous may the state of Princes be, that their greatest Danger may be in their supposed Safety, and their Safety in their suppo∣sed Danger.
I must now leave those that have adhered to Me, and apply to those that have oppo∣sed Me: this method of Peace may be more prosperous than that of War, both to stop the effusion of blood, and to close those wounds already made. And in it I am no less solicitous for My Friends safety than Mine own; chusing to venture My self upon fur∣ther hazards, rather than expose their resolute Loyalty to all extremities.
It is some skill in play to know when a game is lost: better fairly to give over, than 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 Liberty, or make My Conscience their Captive, who ought at first to have used Arguments, nor Arms, to have perswa∣ded My Consent to their new demands.
I thank God, no Success darkens or disguises Truth to Me; and I shall no less con∣form my words to my inward dictates now, than if they had been, as the words of a KING ought to be among Loyal Subjects, full of power.
Reason is the Divinest power: I shall never think My self weakned, while I may make full and free use of that. No eclipse of outward fortune shall rob me of that light: what God hath denied of outward Strength, his Grace, I hope, will supply with inward Resolutions; not morosely to deny what is fit to be granted, but not to grant any thing which Reason and Religion bids me deny.
I shall never think My self less than My self, while I am able thus to preserve the Integrity of My Conscience, the only Jewel now left Me which is worth keeping.
O Thou Soveraign of our Souls, the only Commander of our Consciences; tho I know not what to do, yet mine eyes are toward Thee: To the protection of thy Mercy I still commend My self.
As Thou hast preserved Me in the day of Battel, so Thou canst still shew Me thy strength in My weakness.