establishment of the Commonwealth, and the tempa- rary subversion of the Church of England. During the civil war he was identified with the Presbyterians, and became a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, where he dis]jlayed great courage and learning in opposing many of those tenets which the divines were endeavoring to establish. While in Lon- don he was minister of St. Barthokimew's. In 1G53 he was presented by Parliament with the living of Great Munden, in Hertfordshire. In 1G55 he entered upon the ofHce of vice-chancellor of Cambridge, to which he was chosen that year, having takeil tlie degree of doctor in divinity in 1652. The living of Great Mun- den was given to Dr. Lightfoot by Parliament, and upon the restoration of Charles II it was bestowed upon an- other person. Through the influence of Sheldon, then bishop of London, Lightfoot was, however, reinstated in his living, as well as confirmed in the mastership of Catharine Hall, which he had offered to resign, he hav- ing previously complied with the terms of the Act of Uniformity. Tlirough the influence of Sir Orlando Bridgeman he was appointed to a prebendal stall in the cathedral of Ely, where he died peaceablj^, Dec. 6, 1675. " Lightfoot was a very learned Hebraist for his time, but he was not free from the unscientific crotchets of the period, holding, for example, the inspiration of the vowel-points, etc. He has done good service to theol- ogy by pointing out and insisting upon the close con- nection between the Talmudical and IMidrashic writings and the New Testament, which, to a certain extent, is only to be understood by illustrations from the anterior and contemporaneous religious literature" (Chambers). His object at first was "to jiroduce one great and per- fect work — a harmony of the four evangelists, with a commentary and prolegomena. But the little probabil- ity of his being able to publish at once so vast a work as he saw it would become were he to carry out the idea in its completeness — in an age when brevity was essen- tial to everything which issued from the press — deter- mined him to give to the world from time to time the result of his labors in separate treatises. The subject- matter of these treatises may be classed under the gen- eral heads of chronology, chorography, investigation of original texts and versions, examination of Kabbinical comments and paraphrases" (Kitto). Lightfoot's works are : Eruhhin, or Miscellanies, Christian and Judaical (1G29) : — A J'eio and new Observations vpon the Book of Genesis (1642); — A Ilandfid of Gleaninr/s out of the Book of Exodus (1643): — The Harmony of the four Evangelists amourj themselves andvith the 0. T. (1644): — A Commentarij upon the Acts of the Apostles, 1st part (1645) : — The Harmony, 2d part (no date): — The Tem- ple Service in the Days of our Saviour (1649) : — The Harmony, 3d part (1649) : — The Temple (1650) : — Harm HehixnccB et Talmudicce (1658); — Horae, etc., vpo?i the Gospel of St.Mai-k (16G1; new ed. bj- Eev. R. GandeU, Oxf. 1859, 4 vols. 8vo) : — Jewish and Talmudical Exer- citations vpon St. Luke: — Jetrish, etc., upon St. John: — Horce Hebraico', etc., Acts of the Apostles: — Horw, etc., upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians, During the latter j'ears of his life he contributed the most valuable assistance to the authors of A^'alton's Polyijlot Bible, Cas- tell's Heptaylot Lexicon, and I'ool's Synojms Criticorum. His works were published entire, (1) with a preface by Dr. Bright and a life by tlie editor, John Stryjie, at Lon- don in 1684 (2 vols, fob); (2) at Amsterdaiii in 16^6 (2 vols, fol.) ; (3) at Utrecht, by John Leusden, in 1699 (3 vols, fol.) ; and (4) by Pitman, at London, in from 1822- 25 (13 vols. 8vo), which is the best edition, and contains a very elaborate liiography of Lightfoot. Dr. Adam Clarke says; "In Biblical criticism I consider Liglitfoot the first of aU English writers; and in this I include his learning, his judgment, and his usefulness." See, be- sides the biographies connected with the various collec- tions of his works, />'?-efi.s' Desaiptio Vitce J. Liahlfooti (1699); Kitto, Cyclop, Bib. Lit. vol. ii, s. v.; Ilcrzog, Real-Encyklopddie, vol. viii, s. v. (C. R. B.)
LIGHTFOOT
427
LIGN-ALOE
Lightfoot, John (2), an English divine and bota- nist, was born in Gloucestershire in 1735. He was ed- ucated I'or the Church, became chaplain to the duchess of Portland, and obtained the livings of Sheldon and Gotham. He also devoted himself specially to the study of botany, and, in company with Pennant, explored the Hebrides about 1772, and published in 1777 a valuable " Flora of Scotland" (Fiord &'cotica, 2 vols.), with excel- lent figures. He died in 1788. — Thomas, Biorjrcqjhical Dicfidiutri/, p. 1425.
Lightning ([iroperly p'^3, barak', Dan. x, 6 ; collec- tively H'/Zi/uiiif/s, Psa. cxliv, G; 2 Sam. xxii, 15; Ezra i, 13; plur.Jo!) xxxviii, 35; Psa. xviii, 15; Ixxvii, 19, etc.; trop. the brvjhtness of a glittering sword, Ezek. xxi, 15, 33; Deut. xxxii, 41, etc. ; aoTpcnrl], Matt, xxiv, 27 ; xxviii, 3; Luke x, 18; xi, 36; xvii, 24; Eev. iv, 5; viii, 5; xi, 19; xvi, 18 ; once pT3, huzak', ajhtsh of lightning, Ezek. i, 14; less properly "lix, 6?; light, Job xxxvii, 3, 11, 25; T^sb, lappid', a burning iorc/i, Exod. xx, 18 ; lig. PTn, chaziz', an arrow, i. e. tlwrndcr-Jlash, Zech. x, 1 ; comp. Job xxviii, 26; xxxviii, 25). Travellers state that in Syria lightnings are frequent in the autumnal months. Seldom a night passes without a great deal of lightning, which is sometimes accompanied by thunder and some- times not. A squall of wind and clouds of dust are the usual fiircrunners of the iirst rains. See Palestine. To these natural phenomena the sacred writers fre- quently allude. In directing their energies, " the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet; the mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence ; his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him" (Nah. i, 3-C). The terrors of tlie divine wrath are often represented by thunder and lightning; and thunder, on account of its awful impression on the minds of mortals, is also spoken of in Scripture as the " voice of the Lord" (Psa. cxxxv, 7; cxliv, 6; 2 Sam. xxii, 15; Job xxviii, 26; xxxvii, 4, 6; xxxviii, 25; xl, 9; Zech. ix, 14; Rev. i\% 5 ; xvi, 18 -21). On account of ihcjire attending their light, they are the symbols of edicts enforced with destructi'ia to those who oppose them, or who hinder others from giving obedience to them (Psa. cxliv, 6 ; Zech. ix, 14 ; Psa. xviii, 14; liev. iv, 5; xvi, 18). Thunders and light- nings, when they proceed from the throne of God (as in Pev. iv, 5), are fit representations of God's glorious and awfid majesty; but vfhcnjire comes down from heaven upon the earth, it expresses some judgment of God on the world (as in Rev. xx, 9). The voices, thunders, lightnings, and great hail, in Rev. xvi, 18-21, are inter- preted expressly of an exceeding great plague, so that men blasphemed on account of it (see Wemyss, Sgrnb. Diet. s. v.). See Thundkr.