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.

SECTION XXVIII.

• Ver. 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his hired house, and received all that came to him.
• 31. Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Ie∣sus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

JULIUS the Centurion that had brought him and the rest of the Prisoners from Judea, had been his friend and favourer, from their first setting out, Chap. 27. 3. and so continued, even to the time of his setling in Rome: obtaining him this liberty, that he might take lodgings of his own, and there he was kept under a restraintless restraint: After three daies he sends for the Chief of the Jews, and laies open his case before them, and upon a day appointed he asserteth and expoundeth the truth and doctrine of the Gos∣pel, whereupon some believe, but others do the rather become his enemies.

His accusers that were come from Judea to lay in his charge against him [for we can hardly suppose otherwise, but that some such were come] would be urgent to get their business dispatched that they might be returning to their own homes again; and so would bring him to trial as soon as they could: and that his trial was reasonable early this year, it appeareth by his own words in the second Epistle to Timothy, where he speaketh of his Answer that he had been at, and requireth Timothy to come to him before winter, 2 Tim. 4. 16. 21.

As he appealed to Nero himself, so Nero himself heard his cause, Phil. 1. 13. 2 Tim. 4. 16. [and here it was possible Paul and Seneca might see each other] at which time all that had owned him before, withdrew themselves for fear, and durst not stand by him, or appear with him in this danger.

Tacitus mentioneth a case much like his, which had been tried two years before, namely of Pomponia Graecina a noble Lady of Rome, concerning a strange Religion. Superstiti∣onis externae rea, mariti judicio permissa. Isque prisco instituto, propinquis coram, de capite famaque conjugis cognovit, & insontem nuntiavit. This that he calleth externa superstitio, cannot well be understood of any Religion, but either Judaism or Christianity: for any Heathen superstition did relish so well with them, that it could hardly have brought her into danger. If her peril of life then were because of Christianity, as very well it might, it was a terrible example that lay before the Christians there: and if it were not, then this trial of Paul being of a doubtful issue and consequent and full of danger, it made poor Pauls friends to shrink aside in this his extremity, and to be to seek when he had most need of them. At my first answer, saith he, none stood with me, but all forsook me. In which words he doth not so much refer to what or how many more answers he was called to [as the postscript of that Epistle seemeth to construe it] as he doth intimate, that even at the very first pinch and appearance of danger, all that should have been his assistants started from him. It may be Demas his imbracing of the present world, 2 Tim. 4. 10. signifieth in this sense, that he forsook Paul, and shifted for himself and sculked to avoid the danger

or if it be taken, that he returned to his worldly impolyment again, or that he returned to his Judaism again▪ mean it what it will, we shall see in the story of the next year, that he returned to Paul and to his station again. So that his failing was but as Peters denial of his Master, repented of and recovered. It was a hard case and a great trial with the Apostle, when in so signal an incounter, and so imminent danger of his life, none of the Church that was at Rome, not any of those that were of his own retinue, durst own him, or stand by him in his exigent: but the Lord was with him, and brought him off safe from the Lions mouth: He being assured by this providence of God to him, and for him, in his great danger, that he was reserved for the further benefit of the Church and propaga∣ting of the Gospel, applieth himself to that work the best way he can, considering his con∣dition of imprisonment; and whereas he cannot travel up and down to the Churches to preach to them as he had done, he visiteth divers of them with his Epistles: And first he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. and sendeth it by Crescens, as may be conceived from 2 Tim. 4. 10. For though Demas, and Crescens, and Titus their departure from Paul be reckoned altogether in that verse, yet the reason of their departure cannot be judged to have been alike: for however Demas started upon some ca••nal respect, yet Crescens and Titus are not so branded, nor will the eminent piety of the later suffer us to have any such opinion of him, and the judging of him doth also help us to judge of Crescens who is joyned with him. The postscript of this Epistle both in the Greek, Syriack, Arabick, and divers other Translations, doth gene∣rally date it from Rome: Beza from Antioch: Erasmus from Ephesus, but all upon con∣jecture: for there is no intimation in the Epistle it self of the time or place of its writing: Beza upon these words in Chap. 1. ver. 2. And all the brethren which are with me, saith thus, Puto sic totum Antiochenae Ecclesiae Presbyterium significari, & inde scriptam hanc Epistolam, &c. I think by this he meaneth the whole Presbytery of the Church of Antioch, and that this Epistle was written from thence, at that time that passed between Paul and Barnabas their re∣turn into Asia from their first journey forth, and the coming of those troubles to Antioch, Acts 14. 28. But that Apostacy in the Churches which the Apostle crieth out against in this Epistle and in others, was not then begun; and moreover it may well be questioned whether the Churches of Galatia were then planted. And the former answer, may likewise be given to the opinion that this Epistle was written from Ephesus: namely that at the time of Pauls being at Ephesus, the Apostacy which ere long did sorely and almost Epide∣mically infest the Churches, was but then beginning. And this is one reason why I sup∣pose it written from Rome, at this time that we are upon, because that gangrene in the Ea∣stern Churches was now come to ripeness, as it appears by the second Epistle to Timothy, which was written this same year: See 2 Tim. 1. 15.

False teachers had brought back the Galatians from the simplicity of the Gospel, to their old Ceremonious performances again, and to reliance upon the works of the Law for Ju∣stification: which miscarriage the Apostle taketh sharply to task in this Epistle. And first he vindicates his Apostleship as no whit inferiour to Peter and James and John the Ministers of the Circumcision, and those that chiefly seemed to be pillars, and he shews how those approved of him and it: And then he most divinely states the nature of the Law, at which was the great stumbling; and especially speaks to that point that they most stood upon, their living in it.

The Lord had laid a stone in Sion, which the Jews could not step over, but stumble at, even to this day: and that is that which is said in Levit. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11. and in otherplaces, which the Apostle also toucheth in this Epistle, Chap. 3. 12. from whence they concluded that no living, no justification but by the works of the Law. The Apostle in the third Chapter of this Epistle laies down two conclusions that determine the case, and resolves all into faith. The first is in ver. 17. namely that the Law was not given to cross the Covenant of Grace, but to be subservient to it. The second in ver. 10. that the Law did plainly shew of it self that no man could perform it, but it left a man under the curse. Observe that he saith not, As many as fail of the works of the Law, but As many as are of the works of the Law: shewing that the Lawdid not only denounce a curse upon all that performed it not, but plainly demon∣strated that none could perform it, and so left all under a curse: and these words, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, &c. conclude both. So that the Law was not given for justification, but to be subservient to the Covenant of Justification: not to cross the Covenant but to serve it, not purposely to leave under the curse, but to shew the curse, and to drive men to get from under it. So that men might live in it, but not by it. It was the way in which men were to go to seek for Justification, but it was not the cause or means whereby they were justified. See Gal. 3. 5. The Jews made the Moral Law cross to the Covenant of Grace, whilst they sought to be justified by works▪ and they made the Ceremonial

Law cross the Moral, whilest they resolved all duty into Ceremony: and so the Law which in it self was holy and pure and good, they turned to death unto themselves by their abuse. They might have lived in the Moral Law [had they used it aright,] though not by it: for the more a man sets himself to the exact performance of it, the more he sees he cannot perform it, and therefore he is driven the more to Christ: But they resolved all into Ce∣remonious performance, and so lost sincerity toward the Moral, and hereupon the Ceremo∣nial Law good in it self, became to them Statutes not good, and Judgments wherein they could not live, Exek. 20. 25.