[305] Thomas Sydserff, now Bishop of Galloway, was the chief instrument in procuring Rutherford's banishment to Aberdeen. He was minister of the College Church, Edinburgh; and afterwards successively Bishop of Brechin, Galloway, and Orkney. He early imbibed Arminian principles, and promoted the measures of Archbishop Laud, and was supposed to lean to Popery, it being generally believed that he wore under his coat a crucifix of gold. All this rendered him so unpopular, that, on appearing in the streets of Edinburgh in 1637, when great excitement existed on account of the Service-Book, he was attacked by the matrons of the city. He had equal reason to "cry to the gentlemen for help" under similar attacks in other places. At the Restoration of Charles II. he was the only surviving bishop in Scotland. He was then nominated to the see of Orkney, but survived his promotion little more than a year.
[306] 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").
CLXXXIX.--_To JOHN STUART, Provost of Ayr._ [Letter CLXIII.]