Note 306 — CLXXXVIII.—To Mr. John Fergushill of Ochiltree.

Dr. Thomas Jackson, Dean of Peterborough, first held Calvinistic sentiments, but afterwards became an Arminian,—a change which recommended him to the favour and patronage of Archbishop Laud. He was a man of talent, and the author of various theological works, of which his "Commentary on the Apostles' Creed" is the most important. Rutherford's book against the Arminians, here referred to, in which he treated Jackson with little ceremony, and which was one cause of his banishment by the High Commission Court, is entitled, "Exercitationes Apologeticæ pro Divinâ Gratiâ." It was published at Amsterdam in the beginning of the year 1636, and gained the author no small reputation abroad. Baillie, in giving an account of Rutherford's trial before the High Commission Court, says: "They were animate also against him for taxing Cameron in his book; and most, for his indiscreet railing at Jackson" ("Letters and Journals").