The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

§ But God hath shewed me, that I should not call any man common, or unclean.

This vision that Peter had, when this satisfaction was given him, to learn to call no∣thing common, was only of beasts and fowles and creeping things, yet might he learn that the lesson was also to be understood of men, because the distinction between men and men in regard of common and unclean was first made and most strictly made by the difference betwixt meats and meats. For the very first distinguisher that ever began to inclose Israel for a peculiar from other people, was the not eating of the sinew that shrank, Gen. 32. Circumcision distinguished the seed of Abraham from other people, but this began to distinguish Israel from the other seed of Abraham. And it is observa∣ble, that that ceremony or distinctive rite was first taken up, when Jacob first received the name of Israel.

Now it is true indeed that their forbearing to eat the sinew that shrank, was not as if they accounted it common or unclean, but it was in regard of the honorable memo∣rial ••••at they read upon it, yet was that ceremony the first and proper distinguisher of an Israelite from all other people under heaven some hundreds of years, till more distinctive rites came in, and more things were prohibited to be eaten, for the surer distinction.

There was distinction of clean and unclean beasts before the flood, as appeareth, Gen. 7. 8. but this was in reference to sacrifice only, and not in reference to diet at all: for till the flood they ate nothing but the fruits of the ground, till God gave Noah li∣berty to eat flesh, and to eat any thing that was wholesome for diet. And in this li∣berty did the world continue till the Law given at Sinai, save only an Israelites not eat∣ing the sinew that shrank: And this liberty some Jews themselves confess shall be in the days of Messias, which now first taketh place at this vision of Peter and forward. And here doth Peter begin to put in use and ure that power of binding and loosing which Christ had put into his hands, when he put into his hands the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: And this very place doth so clearly expound and interpet that speech of our Sa∣viour to him, that it is a wonder that ever there should be such scruple and controversie about it.

For, 1. Here beginneth the Kingdom of Heaven: when the Gentiles are received to favour and to the Gospel, who had been so long cast off, and layn in ignorance and ido∣latry, and when no difference is made betwixt them and the Jews any longer, but of every nation, they that fear God and work righteousness are accepted of him as well as Israel. This is the very first beginning or dawning to the Kingdom of Heaven; and so it grew on more and more, till Jerusalem was destroyed, and then was the perfect day, when the Gentiles only were become the Church of Christ, and no Church or Commonwealth of Israel to be had at all, but they destroyed and ruined.

Secondly, here Peter hath the keys of the Kingdom, and unlocked the door for the Gentiles to come in to the Faith and Gospel, which till now had been shut and they kept out. And Peter only had the keys, and none of the Apostles or Disciples but he: for though they from hence forward brought in Gentiles dayly into the Kingdom of Heaven, by converting them to the Gospel; yet it was he that first and only opened the door, and the door being once opened, was never shut, nor never shall be to the end of the world. And this was all the priority that Peter had before the other A∣postles, if it were any priority; and how little this concerneth Rome, or the Papacy, as to be any foundation of it, a child may observe.

3. Peter here looseth the greatest strictness, and what was the straitest bound up of any thing that was in all the policy of Moses and customs of the Jews, and that was, the difference of clean and unclean in the legal sense. And this he looseth on earth, and it is loosed in heaven, for from heaven had he an immediate warrant to dissolve it: And this he doth, first declaratively, shewing that nothing henceforward is to be called com∣mon or unclean, and shewing his authority for this doctrine, and then practically confor∣ming himself to this doctrine that he taught, by going in unto the uncircumcised, and

eating with them: Binding and loosing in our Saviours sense, and in the Jews sense from whose use he taketh the phrase, is of things and not of persons, for Christ saith to Pe∣ter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whatsoever thou bindest and not whomsoever, and to the other Apostles 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Matth. 18. 18. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, whatsoever things, and not whatsoever persons, so that though it be true indeed that Jews and Gentiles are loosed henceforward one to the communion of another, yet the proper object of this loosing that is loosed by Peter, was that Law or doctrine that tied them up: and so con∣cerning the eating of those things that had been prohibited, it is true indeed that the Jews were let loose henceforward to the use of them in diet and to eat what they thought good, but this loosing was not so properly of the men, as the loosing of that prohibition that had bound them before. And this could be no way but doctrinally by teaching that Christian liberty that was given by the Gospel.

Now though Peter only, and none but he had the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, yet had all the Apostles the power of binding and loosing as well as he: and so have all the Ministers of the Gospel as well as they, and all in the same sense, namely, doctri∣nally to teach what is bound and loose, or lawful and unlawful, but not in the same kind: for the Apostles having the constant and unerring assistance of the Holy Ghost, did nullifie by their doctrine, some part of Moses Law, as to the use of it, as Circumcision, Sacrifices, Purifyings, and other legal Rites, which could not have been done by men that had not had such a spirit, for there must be the same spirit of Prophecy to abrogate a Law, which had set it in force.

This matter therefore of Cornelius his calling in, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles is a thing that deserves very high regard and consideration; as in which are includ•••• and involved so many things of note as have been mentioned, and divers others that might be added thereunto; and in the consideration of the matter, the time of it is not to be neglected, which to the serious and considerate Reader and weigher of things in the ballance of Judgment, will appear to be in this year in which we have laid it; especially that being concluded upon, which before we proved unde∣niable, that the Famine was in the second year of Claudius. And this time is the rather to be looked upon, because that some do foolishly misconstrue a clause in Daniel 9. 27. by missing of the right time of this occurence of Cornelius. For looking no fur∣ther into the text than in our English translation, which there hath not spoken the mind of the Original, they conceive that Christ dyed in the midst of the last seven years of the seventy sevens, namely, when three years and an half of the seven were gone, and that at the end of the other three and an half Cornelius was converted: and so they will make those seventies to end in that his conversion, and not in Christs death: which were scarcely worth answering, though we had time and season to do it: seeing it riseth from a mistake in the Text, and sets in a mistake of the time.

Vers. 30. Four days ago I was fasting, &c.

The Greek hath it, From the fourth day until this hour I was or have been fasting: by which it seemeth that Cornelius had now been fasting four days together, as Paul was three days at his conversion, Chap. 9. 9. But it is not much material whether we understand it so, or as it is commonly understood of his fasting four days since, till such an hour of that day, as it was now of this day when he is speaking to Peter, unless we will make any thing of it, that the Jews espcially upon their solemn days used to taste nothing till noon, and Cornelius herein follows there custome: and that it was about noon when Peter comes to Cornelius, as it was about noon when Cornelius messengers came to Peter: And so the distance betwixt Caesarea & Joppa to be a days journey and an half.

Vers. 36. The Word which God sent.

Beza supposeth that this verse ought to be referred and joyned to the verse that went before, and they two together, to be construed to this sense, Now I know that God is no respecter of Persons: but in every Nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him; which is the very doctrine which God sent among the children of Israel by Moses and the Prophets, preaching peace by them by Jesus Christ. And one main induction

that he hath to this construction is, because otherwise it would be improper for Peter to say, Cornelius and his friends knew this word, when it was Peters very errand to in∣struct them in it, and teach it to them. But the words are to be read and taken in the sense that our English hath well made of them; namely, as following the word ye know: For all the Country knew that Jesus preached, and preached peace and the like; and thousands though they knew that he preached, and what he preached, yet did they not believe that he was the Messias, nor that he was risen from the dead: and these two last things it was that Peter came to teach Cornelius, and not to tell him that Jesus of Nazareth had preached, for that he and all his friends knew.

Vers. 44. The Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word.

This was a second confirmation of the entertainment of the Gentiles to the Gospel, or a miracle added by God, to the doctrine preached by Peter, that nothing now was to be accounted common or unclean: for when God had poured the Holy Ghost upon the uncircumcision as well as upon the circumcised, it was evidence sufficient that now God made no difference betwixt them: How these extraodinary gifts of the Spirit had been confined hitherto only to the Nation of the Jews, it is not only clear by Scripture, but it is upon that clearness thought by the Jews that it must be confined thither ever, and that neither any Gentile at all, nor hardly any Jew out of the Land of Canaan could be capable of them; and therefore when they here see the same measure and fulness and freeness of the Spirit upon the Gentiles, as had been upon Jews; they cannot but conclude the difference was in vanishing, and that God was setting up a Church among them, when he bestowed the Spirit of Prophecy upon them.

Vers. 47. Can any man forbid water, &c.

Peters thoughts in these words, look back to those words of our Saviour, Go teach all Nations, and baptize them, Mat. 28. 19. where he meaneth not, that none should be bap∣tized but those that are capable of teaching, but his meaning is this, that whereas his Disciples had hitherto been limited and confined only to preach to the Jews, to go to none but to the lost Sheep of Israel; now had the Jews by the murdering of Christ shewed themselves unworthy, and had forfeited the benefit of the Gospel; and therefore Christ now inlargeth his Apostles and Disciples, to go now and to teach all Nations, and to baptize them to preach to the Heathens, and to bring them in by baptism, since the Jews had despised the Gospel, and crucified the Lord of life that preached it: To this it is that Peter here looketh, at this first conversion of the Gentiles; and when he seeth the very same gifts bestowed on them from Heaven, that were upon the Jews, he conclu∣ded that none could object against their being baptized: and accordingly he commands that they should be baptized: either by some of those that came with him from Joppa, they being more than probably Ministers; or he commanded that provision should be made for their baptizing by himself.