Acts xv. 7. This opinion he openly held in the Assembly of Divines. 4. He did not allow that Binding and Loosing related to discipline, but to doctrine. And that because the phrases, to bind and loose were Jewish, and most frequent in their writers; and that it belonged only to their teachers, to bind and to loose. And that when the Jews set any apart to be a preacher, they used these words, Take thou liberty to teach, what is bound, and what is loose. And we may here add, his peculiar interpretation of God's words to Cain, If thou dost not well, sin lieth at the door. Sin, that is not punishment, to take hold of thee, but a sin-offering, to make atonement for thee. And that, he said, was the common accepta. tion of the Hebrew word, which is rendered sin, in the books of Moses. And that God did not intend to terrify Cain by those words, but rather to keep him from despair. Upon the restoration of King Charles the Second, it is said, that he was in danger of being deprived of his preferments, but by the good offices of Archbishop Sheldon, and others, he was not only confirmed in the possession of these, but was also presented, by the lordkeeper Bridgeman, to a prebendary's place in the cathe dral of Ely. He died there of a fever, Dec. 6th, 1675. His remains were interred at Munden. Some of Dr Lightfoot's writings were first published separately, in small pieces. His Miscellanies Christian and Judaical, and Others: Penned for Recreation at vacant hours. A small book, 203 pages. London, 1629. It was dedicated to Sir Rowland Cotton. The epistle dedicatory was dated at Hornsey, near London, March 5, 1629. In that epistle, he says, "My creeping and weak studies, neither able to go, nor to speak for themselves, do, like Pyrrhus in Plutarch, in silence crave your tuition. Your encouragement and incitation did first set me forward to the culture of holy tongues, and here I offer you the first fruits of my barren harvest. Your tried learning and tried love assure me, that you can judge soundly, and yet will not judge too heavily of my weak endeavours; and such a patron my book desireth." He published that book, when he was about twenty-seven years of age; and, by the quotations in it, he appears to have studied and read to a very great extent. His Harmony of the Old Testament was also first published separately. And his Harmony of the four Evangelists among themselves and with the Old Testament, Part 1st, from the beginning of the Gospel to the baptism of our Saviour. 4to. pp. 214. London, 1644.-Part 2d, 4to. pp. 136, from the baptism of our Saviour, to the first passover after. London, 1647.-Part 3d, from the first passover after our Saviour's baptism, to the second. 4to. pp. 95. London, 1650.-A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, chronical and critical, Part 1st, from v. 1, to the end of chap. 12th, with a brief survey of the contemporary story of the Jews and Romans. 4to. pp. 33. London, 1645.-And, The Harmony, Chronicle and Order, of the New Testament-The text of the four Evangelists methodized-The story of the Acts of the Apostles analized-The Order of the Epistles manifested-And the times of the Revelation observed. All illustrated, with variety of observations upon the chiefest difficulties Textual and Talmudical, for clearing of their sense and language. With an additional Discourse concerning the Fall of Jerusalem, and the condition of the Jews in that land afterward. This learned and elaborate work was published, in a small folio-form. pp. 195. London, 1655.-I have seen three sermons of his, before the House of Commons, Fast, which were published separately; one from Luke i. 17. Another from Rev. xx. 1, 2. And a third from Psalm iv. 4. -The Temple-service as it stood in the days of our Saviour. 4to. pp. 200. The Temple: especially as it stood in the days of our Saviour. 4to. pp. 286. Lond. 1650. Horae Hebraicae, &c. Leipsic, 1675. 4to. pp. 50. 4to. pp. 31. Lond. 1643. 4to. pp. 35. Lond. 1647. His Works were published by Mr Strype, in two volumes folio. London, 1684. The first volume contains The Harmony of the Old and New Testaments-Observations on Genesis-An handful of Gleanings out of the book of Exodus-A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles-The Temple-service-Miscellanies-The Temple described, with a map of it drawn by himself. The second volume contains, Horae Hebraicae, or Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations, on the four Evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, some chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, and on 1 Cor. translated into English, and published by Mr John Strype, with above forty Sermons, which were preached on several subjects and occasions, and a short tract on the fourth article of the Creed, never before published: All in English. And his Works were printed in Latin at Rotterdam, in 2 vols. folio, 1686. with a very beautiful frontispiece. And Mr Strype informs us, in his Preface to his Remains, that this learned man's usefulness has been so well known abroad, that there have been two or three impressions of his works there, since his death, the last of which was finished at Franeker, in the year 1698, with the addition of different tracts of his Remains. Remfertus, the Professor, and several learned men in that place, had earnestly desired to obtain every production of Dr Lightfoot's pen for publication, that no notions of so great a man might be lost. Some of his Genuine Remains were published by Mr Strype, London, 1700. Octavo, pp. 295. I have seen Dr Lightfoot's writings in different parts of Scotland, and in England. JOHN DE LA MARCH. JOHN DE LA MARCH was minister of the French Church. In the year 1643, he was appointed one of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and assisted his brethren in their arduous work in that Assembly. He was one of those divines who subscribed the proposition, "That Jesus Christ, as King of the Church, hath himself appointed a church-government, distinct from the a Lightfoot's Life prefixed to his Works, both Latin and English, and the Preface to some of his Genuine Remains. civil magistrate." Lightfoot entered his dissent respecting that proposition, with whom very probably Mr Coleman would have joined, if he had not been seized with sickness at that juncture and died." But many eminent divines readily subscribed it.-From what John de la March has published to the world, he appears to have been a considerable sufferer in the cause of Truth, and a very zealous covenanter and reformer. He has published a Treatise on Rev. xviii. 17. which is entitled, "A Complaint of the False Prophet's Mariners, upon the drying up of their Hierarchical Euphrates, as it was publicly preached, in the island of Guernsey, before a sett order of Ministers, expounding in their turns the Revelation of John." 4to. pp. 112. London, 1641. In this publication, the author speaks very warmly against the innovations, the usurpations, and tyrannical government of the prelates, with their attempts to introduce popery. He speaks against the government of the church by Archbishops, diocesean bishops, and all ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy; and in favour of the Presbyterian form of church-government. In the last page of the book, he says, "But above all be careful to commend the rooting out to the very stumps, yea stumps and all of that hierarchical antichristian-like church-government, with all the officers thereof, to those who are now fighting the battles of the Lord; and, in place thereof, labour to have the holy church-discipline of Christ established, countenanced, and fully authorised among us; seeing that no man usurp, under what colour or title, how favourable and specious soever it be, any dominion over the Lord's inheritance.”—A dedicatory epistle to the House of Commons, an Address to the faithful witness of Christ, Mr Henry Burton, and a short Preface, are prefixed to that Performance. In the Address to Mr Burton, the author says; "Worthy Sir, the first draught of this Treatise was conveyed unto you presently after the matter therein contained had been preached in our monthly Propositions, and public meetings duly observed among us, according VOL. II. a Neal's Puritans, vol. iii. chap. vii. L book of Exodus-A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles-The Temple-service-Miscellanies-The Temple described, with a map of it drawn by himself. The second volume contains, Horae Hebraicae, or Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations, on the four Evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, some chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, and on 1 Cor. translated into English, and published by Mr John Strype, with above forty Sermons, which were preached on several subjects and occasions, and a short tract on the fourth article of the Creed, never before published: All in English. And his Works were printed in Latin at Rotterdam, in 2 vols. folio, 1686. with a very beautiful frontispiece. And Mr Strype informs us, in his Preface to his Remains, that this learned man's usefulness has been so well known abroad, that there have been two or three impressions of his works there, since his death, the last of which was finished at Franeker, in the year 1698, with the addition of different tracts of his Remains. Remfertus, the Professor, and several learned men in that place, had earnestly desired to obtain every production of Dr Lightfoot's pen for publication, that no notions of so great a man might be lost. Some of his Genuine Remains were published by Mr Strype, London, 1700. Octavo, pp. 295. I have seen Dr Lightfoot's writings in different parts of Scotland, and in England. JOHN DE LA MARCH. JOHN DE LA MARCH was minister of the French. Church. In the year 1643, he was appointed one of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and assisted his brethren in their arduous work in that Assembly. He was one of those divines who subscribed the proposition, "That Jesus Christ, as King of the Church, hath himself appointed a church-government, distinct from the a Lightfoot's Life prefixed to his Works, both Latin and English, and the Preface to some of his Genuine Remains. |