Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/140

130 was obliged to ſend to a friend to borrow a guinea.

As the moſt powerful allurements of riches, and honour, could never ſeduce him to relinquiſh the intereſt of his country, ſo not even the moſt immenſe dangers could deter him from purſuing it. In a private letter to a friend from Highgate, in which he mentions the inſuperable hatred of his foes to him, and their deſign of murthering him, he has theſe words; Præterea magis occidere metuo quam occidi, non quod vitam tanti æſtimem, ſed ne imparatus moriar, i. e. ‘Beſides, I am more apprehenſive of killing, than being killed, not that I value life ſo much, but that I may not die unprepared.’ Mr. Marvel did not remain an unconcerned member of the ſtate, when he ſaw encroachments made upon it both by the civil, and eccleſiaſtical powers. He ſaw that ſome of the biſhops had formed an idea of proteſtantiſm very different from the true one, and were making ſuch advances towards popery, as would ſoon iſſue in a reconciliation. Amongſt theſe eccleſiaſtics, none was ſo forward as Dr. Samuel Parker, who publiſhed at London 1672 in 8 vo. biſhop Bramhal’s Vindication of himſelf, and the Epiſcopal Clergy, from the Preſbyterian charge of Popery, as it is managed by Mr. Baxter in his Treatiſe on the Grotian Religion. Dr. Parker likewiſe preached up the doctrine of Non-reſiſtance, which ſlaviſh principle is admirably calculated to prepare the people for receiving any yoke. Marvel, whoſe talent conſiſted in drollery, more than in ſerious reaſoning, took his own method of expoſing thoſe opinions. He wrote a piece called The Rehearſal Tranſpoſed, in which he very ſucceſsfully ridiculed Dr. Parker. This ludicrous eſſay met with ſeveral anſwers, ſome ſerious, and others humorous; we ſhall not here enumerate all the Rejoinders, Replies, and Animadverſions upon it. Wood himſelf confeſſes, who was