BIOGRAPHY. JACK ACKSON, ARTHUR, was born at Little Waldingfield in Suffolk, in 1593. His father, who was a Spanish merchant in London, died when he was young, and his mother who afterwards married sir T. Crooke, bart. dying in Ireland, he was sent by his guardian, Mr. Jos. Jackson of Edmonton, to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was placed under a tutor, who was so inattentive to his pupils, that any of them, as he said, might have been for months absent without his knowing it. But being, through the grace of God, of a studious disposition, he was careful to improve his time. At that early period he commenced a habit, which he continued till the time of his death, of rising at three or four o'clock both summer and winter, seldom studying less than fourteen or sixteen hours in the day. His sight was so good, even to the last, that he could read the smallest Greek print without spectacles, by moon light. But he was so short-sighted that he could not distinguish his friends when he met them in the street; which occasioned some who did not thoroughly know him, to accuse him of pride, for not returning their civilities. He continued in the college till 1619, when he married the the eldest daughter of Mr. T. Bownert, of Stoneberry, Herts, with whom he lived above forty-seven years in the greatest endearment, and by whom he had three sons and five daughters. Soon after his marriage he was chosen by the inhabitants of St. Michael's, Wood Street, to be their lecturer, and after the death of Mr. Brogden, called to be their pastor. When the plague broke out in 1624, he sent his wife and children to her father in Hertfordshire, being determined to continue in the city, where he discharged all the duties of a faithful pastor; hazarding his own life VOL. III.-No. 51. B to to save the souls of his flock, often visiting persons infected with that dreadful disease: and the Lord wonderfully preserved him from the infection, when thousands fell around him. He preached constantly twice on the Lord's day, and catechized the children before sermon. He also repeated a sermon in the evening in his own family, to which many` of his hearers resorted. During Lent he always spent some hours in the church two days in the week, examining and instructing men and maid servants and others, in order to prepare them for the Lord's Supper and many long afterwards thankfully acknowledged the benefit they received from his labours. Not long after his coming to London, the Clothworkers' Company, of which his father and uncle were members and governors, chose him to be their chaplain, to whom he preached once every quarter at Lamb's Chapel, where also he sometimes dispensed the communion, on a turn-up-table, which was used at other times. for different purposes. Laud, then bishop of London, hearing of this, sent for Mr. Jackson, and expressed his dislike of it; saying, "I know not what you young divines think, but for my part, I know no other place of residence that God hath on earth, but the high altar:" forgetting the doctrine of Scripture and of the homily concerning the bodies and souls of true Christians, as the special temples of God. Mr. Jackson never read, and resolved not to read, "the Book of Sports;" but through God's providence he was preserved from being ever disturbed on that account. Some persons complained of him to the then archbishop, Laud, for this omission, who answered, "Mr. Jackson is a quiet peaceable man, and therefore I will not have him meddled with." "Archbishop Sheldon likewise passed the like encomiuin upon him, notwithstanding his known difference in judgement concerning church government and ceremonies. He continued many years in the rectory of St. Michael's, though the income was so small that he spent two thousand pounds of his own during the time he was there. And though he was chosen at Wapping, with the offer of one hundred and twenty pounds a year, he yielded to the request of his former hearers to continue with them, on their promising him one hundred pounds per annum. But in two years the sum fell so far short, that some of his best friends persuaded him to accept any better situation that might be offered. Such an one there soon soon was from the inhabitants of St. Faith's, whose parish church was under St. Paul's, and he accepted it. Here he continued preaching twice every Lord's day, till Aug. 24, 1662, excepting about seventeen weeks, when he was confined to the Fleet for refusing to give evidence against Mr. Love, before what was called a high Court of Justice, who also fined him five hundred pounds. He paid a special attention to young persons in private as well as in public, several of whom he engaged to meet every week for prayer and religious conversation, He advised them to propose a question at one meeting, to be discussed at the next; and he not only prayed with them, but directed them how to manage these meetings to the best advantage, and cautioned them against those evils of which they might otherwise have been productive. The benefit of them many long remembered with pleasure and thankfulness. When Charles II. upon his restoration, made his entrance into the city, Mr. Jackson was appointed by the ministers to present to him a Bible as he passed through St. Paul's Church Yard, which was in his parish; when he addressed his majesty in a short congratulatory speech, which was graciously received *. He was also one of the commissioners of the Savoy. After Mr. Jackson, with his brethren, was discharged from public service, he retired first to Hadley near Barnet, and afterwards to his eldest son's at Edmonton. When the plague again broke out, some of his friends in the city made him a visit, lamenting that he had left them; upon which he offered to go and preach to them again if they could procure him liberty; which they promised to attempt, but in vain. When the Five Mile Act passed, he was much concerned to be banished so far from his flock, among whom he had laboured forty years; but upon prayer and serious consideration, he could not be satisfied to comply with the terms required, and resolved patiently to bear whatever night befal him; saying with Luther," I shall have a place either under heaven or in heaven." In the country he employed most of his time in completing his "Annotations on the Bible." He had gone so far as the It is worthy of being recorded, That his Majesty, in his answer to the address of these ministers, on this occasion, told them, "That he must attribute his Restoration, under God, to their prayers and endeavours." If so, as Dr. Calamy remarks, he made them a sad return afterwards. B 2 third |