[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").