Marshall enters into a defence of the deprivations subsequent to the Revolution, as Hoadley had done just before, though his method of handling the subject is different from the Bishop's. In many respects Marshall's is a valuable work: and may be regarded as the best defence against the charges alleged by the Nonjurors. The author was a man of erudition and piety: and he will be ever held in estimation in the Church for two most able and learned works, the Translation of Cyprian's Works, and The Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church. His Defence is written with much moderation. It appears too, that he had lived on terms of intimacy with Hickes down to the period of his death. He alludes to the fact, that when the Depriving Act passed, none of the Bishops, who were subsequently subjected to its operation, were present in Parliament to enter their protest against the proceedings: and because none of the complying Prelates opposed the Bill, he infers their consent to the deprivations of
shall I say to those of my brethren who have formed a new separation. I cannot with the Bishop of Bangor admire the long and extraordinary lenity of the government to them: much less can I think that he (though he has plundered Hobbes, and Locke, and Sydney, and the authors of the rights of the Christian Church) has said any thing that may convince men of the Christian nature of revolution principles. I am satisfied that they refused to take the Oaths proposed to them out of a true principle of conscience: and because they knew of no Prince, Prelate, or Presbyter who could absolve them from the Oath of Allegiance and supremacy, which they had taken to their lawful Sovereign. It was not a factious, hypocritical, treasonable covenant, which they held up as a shield against the new Oaths: but it was the obligation of a lawful Oath, and imposed by law: and none can pretend there was any thing in it contrary to the law of God, or the practice of the first and purest Christians." Milbourne's Legacy, ii. 333, 334.
