against him, or betray his country
by giving his voice against its interest, at least what he reckoned
so. The only favour therefore which he begged of his Majesty, was,
that he would esteem him as dutiful a subject as any he had, and
more in his proper interest in rejecting his offers, than if he had
embraced them. The lord Danby finding no arguments would prevail, told
him, the King had ordered a thousand pounds for him, which he hoped he
would accept, 'till he could think what farther to ask of his Majesty.
This last temptation was refused with the same stedfastness of mind as
the first.

The reader must have already taken notice that Mr. Marvel's chief
support was the pension allowed him by his constituents, that his
lodgings, were mean, and consequently his circumstances at this time
could not be affluent. His resisting these temptations therefore in
such a situation, was perhaps one of the most heroic instances of
patriotism the Annals of England can furnish. But his conduct will be
still heightened into a more amiable light, when it is related, that
as soon as the lord treasurer had taken his leave, he 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; Praeterea
magis eccidere metuo quam occidi, non quod vitam tanti aestimem, 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 8vo. 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,