Next to religion, the power of the sword is the truest judge and greatest support of sovereignty which is unknown to none (as it may be that of religion is to some). Wherefore, concerning this, I will only say that whosoever will persuade you to part with it, does but in a civil way desire you to be no king; reward and punishment (which are the inseparable effects of regal power) necessarily depending upon it, and without which a king can neither be loved nor feared of his subjects.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Next to religion, the power of the sword is the truest judge and greatest support of sovereignty which is unknown to none (as it may be that of religion is to some). Wherefore, concerning this, I will only say that whosoever will persuade you to part with it, does but in a civil way desire you to be no king; reward and punishment (which are the inseparable effects of regal power) necessarily depending upon it, and without which a king can neither be loved nor feared of his subjects." in the context of "Letter to the Prince of Wales (26 August 1646), quoted in Letters of the Kings of England, Now First Collected from the Originals in Royal Archives, and From Other Authentic Sources, Private as well as Public, Vol. II, ed. James Orchard Halliwell (1846), p. 418" to mean that wisdom is timeless.