SOME PARTICULARS OF DR. JACKSON'S LIFE, FROM A. WOOD'S ATHENE OXONIENSES, THOMAS JACKSON, the ornament of the university in his time, was born at Witton on the river Weer in the bishopric of Durham on the day of S. Thomas the Apostle, an. 1579, a became a student in Queen's coll. under the tuition of "Crakanthorpe, in Midsummer term 1595, was admitted scholar of C. C. coll. 24 March 1596, and prob. fellow 10 May 1606, being then M. of A. and had laid the grounds carefully in arithmetic, grammar, philology, geometry, rhetoric, logic, philosophy, a [became a student. In this matter he was indebted to the liberality of Ralph, the third lord Eure, of Witton, lieutenant of the principality of Wales for king James I, as he gratefully acknowledges in the Dedication of his two first books of Commentaries.] b [Crakanthorpe. Who was a friend of lord Eure, and went with him as chaplain when he was sent by king James as embassador extraordinary to the emperor of Germany. A. Wood speaks of Crakanthorpe in the following terms: "Being a noted preacher and a profound disputant in divinity, (of which faculty he was a bachelor,) he was admired by all great men, and had in veneration especially by the puritanical party, he being himself a zealot among them, as having with others of the same college, entertained many of the principles of Dr. John Rainolds while he lived there. He was a person esteemed by most men to have been replenished with all kind of virtue and learning, to have been profound in philosophical and theological learning, a great canonist, and so familiar and exact in the fathers, councils and schoolmen, that none in his time scarce went beyond him." Ath. Ox. V. ii. col. 361.] c [being then M. of A. He became B.A. July 23, 1599, M.A. July 9, 1603, B.D. June 25, 1610, and D. D. June 26, 1622. Fasti Oxon.] Oriental languages, histories, &c. with an insight in heraldry and hieroglyphics. All which he made use of to serve either as rubbish under the foundation, or as drudges and day-labourers to theology. In 1622 he proceeded D. D. and two years after dleft his coll. for a benefice in his own country, which the president and society thereof had then lately conferr❜d on him. But he keeping the said living not long, was made vicar of a [left his college. He quitted the college, and it is probable that he soon afterwards resigned his fellowship. It is surprising that both Wood and Vaughan, the latter of whom was a fellow of the college at the time, should have stated that he was presented to a benefice in the county of Durham by the president and fellows of his own college. The living to which they refer was the rectory of Winston, in the patronage of the bishop of Durham, and he received it from bp. Neile, whose chaplain he also became about the same time. The mistake may probably have arisen from this circumstance. In the year 1616 the president and fellows had engaged by a formal act to present Dr. Jackson to one of their livings when it should next become vacant, and this engagement may have been supposed by his biographers to have taken effect when he became rector of Winston. But the living in question was in Somersetshire, and did not become vacant till the year 1625, at which time, accordingly, Dr. Jackson having become incapable of holding it, owing to his preferment in the north, it was presented to a different person. These facts are obtained from Mr. Fullman's papers in the possession of the college.] e [keeping the said living not long. Vaughan also says, in speaking of the rectory of Winston, "from thence he removed to the vicarage of Newcastle," and thus both biographers appear to have believed that Dr. Jackson ceased to be rector of Winston at the time when he became the vicar of Newcastle. But the fact was otherwise. He resided indeed at Newcastle, but it appears from Rymer (Fœdera, vol. xviii. p. 660.) that he obtained a dispensation, bearing date May 12, 1625, to enable him to hold the two livings together. He was instituted to the vicarage on the 27th of November 1623, and continued to discharge the duties of it to the time of his resignation in the year 1630, when he was appointed to the headship of his college. (Brand's Hist. of Newcastle, vol. i. p. 305.) From the dedication of his Discourses to bishop Neile, in the year 1624, we learn that he was at that time residing in Oxford: but it also appears, that he was only absent for a time, and with permission from the bishop; and in dedicating the sixth book of his Exposition to the earl of Pembroke, in the year 1627, we find him dating from his study at Newcastle upon Tyne. In speaking of Dr. Jackson's removal to Newcastle, Vaughan says that it was "with consent from the same college obtained, where no re S. Nicholas church in Newcastle upon Tine, where he was much followed and admired for his excellent way of preaching, which was then puritanical. At length being elected president of C. C. coll., partly with the helps of Neile bishop of Durham, (who before had taken him off from his precise way, and made him his chaplain,) but more by the endeavours of Dr. Laud, and also made chaplain in ordinary to his majesty, he left the quest could be denied him," and these words would seem to imply, that he requested and received permission from the college to hold his fellowship together with his preferment in the north. But the more probable interpretation is, that the words refer to the rectory of Winston, which, on Vaughan's supposition of his having received it from the college, he could not have continued to hold together with the vicarage without their consent. He had probably resigned his fellowship some time previously, as according to modern practice, it would be impossible to retain a fellowship in that society for any considerable time after institution either to Winston or to Newcastle. The vicarage of Newcastle was in the patronage of the bishop of Carlisle, but it would appear from the words of the Dedication already noticed, that Dr. Jackson was indebted to his friend the bishop of Durham for his appointment; unless we suppose the words to refer, not to his presentation to the living, but merely to his institution, which he would certainly receive from the hands of bishop Neile. He says, "These papers contain only the first fruits of my labours in that worthy and famous congregation, which it pleased your lordship about a year ago to commit unto my trust." This description, however, applies exactly to the large and flourishing town of Newcastle, but is utterly out of place in reference to so remote and limited a population as that of Winston. But it is clear that the two biographers are again in error. Surtees states (Hist. of Durham, vol. iv. p. 36.) that Dr. Jackson was instituted to the rectory of Winston in the year 1625. If this date be correct, Newcastle was the first of the two livings to which he was now presented. The statement of Surtees is confirmed by the dispensation contained in Rymer's Fœdera, which bears date May 12, 1625, and speaks of Winston as the living allowed to be held together with the other. The name of Jackson appears frequently on the records of the town of Newcastle. Sir John Jackson, knt. was recorder about the year 1620, and William Jackson, town-clerk and sometime sheriff, died Aug. 8, 1630. Surtees' Hist. of Durham, vol. iii. p. 271.] f [more by the endeavours of Dr. Laud. This account is scarcely consistent with the statement of Vaughan, but it may still be perfectly correct, as Laud, then bishop of London, had a few months previously been appointed chancellor of the University, and had already taken an active part in its proceedings.] said vicarage, and was made prebendary of Winchester, 1 vicar of Witney in Oxfordshire, and dean of Peterborough in the place of Dr. Joh. Towers promoted to the episcopal see thereof, by the favour of the said Laud, an. 1638. He was a person furnished with all learned languages, arts and sciences, especially metaphysics, which he looked upon as a necessary handmaid to divinity. He was also profoundly read in the fathers, and was of a wonderful and deep judgment, as it appears by his works that are much admired by all persons. None wrote more highly concerning the attributes of God, and more vigorous in some of his works, against the church of Rome, than he." I speak it in the presence of God," (saith one,) "I have not read so hearty, vigorous a champion against Rome, (amongst our writers of his rank) so convincing and demonstrative, as Dr. Jackson is. I bless God for the confirmation which he hath given me in the Christian religion against the Atheist, Jew, and Socinian; and in the Protestant against Rome," &c. In a word, he was a man of a blameless life, Mr. Alvye of Trinity college, and the vicarage of Witney, after he had incurred much expense respecting it, to Mr. Thomas White, then proctor of the University. How far Dr. Jackson's recommendation of these two clergymen may have had weight with the bishops of Carlisle and Winchester, the patrons of the two livings in question, cannot now be ascertained, but it is clear that he could not have had any absolute right of presentation to them.] i[dean of Peterborough. This appointment was made late in the year 1638 or early in 1639, but there is no entry in the Register of his instalment. (Le Neve, Fasti.) Browne Willis (Survey of Cathed.) says, that he was admitted to the deanery on the 17th of January, 1633.] k saith one. Barnabas Oley, in the Life of George Herbert. Lond. 1652, and in 1675. [Herbert's Remains, sign. A 12.] studious, humble, courteous, and very charitable, devout towards God, and exemplary in private and public, beloved of Laud archb. of Cant. and blamed by none in any respect, but by the restless presbyterians; the chief of whom, Will. Prynne, who busily concerned himself in all affairs, doth give him 'this character in the name of the brethren. "Dr. Jackson of Oxon is a man of great abilities, and of a plausible, affable, courteous deportment, till of late he hath been transported beyond himself, with metaphysical contemplations to his own infamy and his renowned mother's shame, I mean the university of Oxon, who grieves for his defection; from whose duggs he never sucked his poisonous doctrines."-" Also that he is" (as in another place he tells us) "of civil conversation and learning, which made his errors and preferments more dangerous and pernicious, and that it was his Arminian errors, not his learning or honesty, that were the ground of his advancement to his dignity," &c. He tells us also in another place, 1 this character. In his AntiArminianism, or the Church of England's Old Antithesis, printed 1630. p. 270. [edit. 1629. p. 133. The passage goes on as follows, "his evidence hath been blanched and blasted by a parliament examination, excepted against by the convocation house, answered by some, disowned by most of our divines."] m as in another place. Canterb. Doom, p. 532. n [He tells us also. In his Append. to Anti-Arminianism, published in 1630. In the preceding year the house of commons had adopted the following Protest, "We, the Commons in parliament assembled, do claim protest and avow for truth the sense of the Articles of Religion, (which were established by parliament in the 13th year of our late queen Elizabeth,) which by the public act of the church of England, and by the general and current expositions of the writers of our church has been delivered unto us. And we reject the sense of the Jesuits and Arminians, and all others wherein they differ from us." This Protest was occasioned by the appearance of the royal Declaration, published together with the Thirty-nine Articles in 1628, which prohibited all disputes and speculations on the Calvinistic points, and the effect of which was to condemn the Calvinistic interpretation that had hitherto prevailed. But the complaint of the puritans was not merely that they were prohibited from expressing their sentiments, but that the opposite party, who were equally included under the prohibition, were favoured by the court and the archbishop, and allowed to publish their opinions with impunity. It was in November 1627 that Dr. Jackson sent forth his treatise of the Divine Essence, which forms the sixth book of his Exposition; and as he had |