God sees 'tis fit to deprive Me of Wife, Children, Armie, Friends, and Freedom, that I may be wholly his, who alone is all. I care not much to be reckoned among the Unfortunate, if I be not in the black List of irreligious and sacrilegious Princes. No Restraint shall ensnare my Soul in sin; nor gain that of me which may make my Enemies more insolent, my Friends ashamed, or my Name accursed. They have no great cause to triumph, that they have got my Person into their power; since my Soul is still my own: nor shall they ever gain my Consent against my Conscience. What they call obstinacie, I know God accounts honest constancie, from which Reason and Religion, as well as Honor, forbid Me to recede. 'Tis evident now, that it was not Evil Counsellors with Me, but a good Conscience in Me, which hath been fought against; nor did they ever intend to bring Me to my Parliament, till they had brought My mind to their obedience. Should I grant what some men desire, I should be such as they with Me, not more a King, and far less both Man and Christian. What Tumults and Armies could not obtain, neither shall Restraint; which though it have a little of safety to a Prince, yet it hath not more of danger. The fear of men shall never be my snare; nor shal the love of any liberty entangle my soul: Better others betray me, then my self: and that the price of my liberty should be my conscience; the greatest injuries my Enemies seek to inflict upon me, cannot be without my own consent. While I can deny with Reason, I shall defeat the greatest impressions of their malice, who neither know how to use worthily what I have already granted; nor what to require more of me but this, That I would seem willing to help them to destroy my self and mine. Although they should destroy me, yet they shall have no cause to despise me. Neither liberty nor life are so dear to me, as the peace of my Conscience, the Honor of my Crowns, and the welfare of my People; which my word may injure more then any War can do; while I gratifie a few to oppresse all. The Laws wil by Gods blessing, revive, with the love and Loyaltie of my Subjects; if I bury them not by my Consent, and cover them in that grave of dishonor and injustice, which some mens violence hath digged for them. If my Captivity or Death must be the price of their redemption, I grudge not to pay it. No condition can make a King miserable, which carries not with it, his Souls, his Peoples, and Posterities thraldom. After-times may see, what the blindnesse of this Age will not; and God may at length shew my Subjects, that I chuse rather to suffer for them, then with them; happily I might redeem my self to some shew of liberty, if I would consent to enslave them: I had rather hazard the ruine of one King, then to confirm many Tyrants over them, from whom I pray God deliver them, what ever becomes of me, whose solitude hath not left me alone.