LIGHTFOOT, JOHN, born 1602, is one of those English divines who belong peculiarly to the class called commentators, that is, who have written notes or comments on the Holy Scriptures. By the mass of readers these persons are not properly distinguished from each other; yet each has his own peculiarity : that of Dr. Lightfoot being an intimate acquaintance with Rabbinical literature. In this perhaps no English scholar has ever equalled him, and he has applied this species of knowledge extensively, and in many instances success fully, to the illustration of the sacred writings. His works are collected in two large folio volumes, with an account of hie life prefixed, to which we refer the reader for particular details. He was the eon of a clergyman at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, studied at Cambridge for the church, was ordained, and settled early in life on the living of Stone In his native county. But the temptation of an easy access to books brought him to London ; and taking a house at Hornsey, he there spent twelve years in close theological study.
There it was that he laid the foundation of his own fame, and of a usefulness which reaches into a period far beyond the date of his own existence.
In the disturbed times he took part with the Presbyterians, became a member of the assembly of divines, accepted the living of St. Bartholomew beside the Exchange, and was made master of Catherine Hall by the parliamentary visitors of the University of Cambridge. He hsd also the living of Great Munden in Hertfordshire, which was presented to him in 1644. On the restoration of King Charles II, when the Church of England was resettled in an episcopal form and order, Dr. Lightfoot complied with the terms of the Act of Uniformity. From that time he chiefly resided on his living at Great Munden, where he had a people who could not estimate his learning and value, but to whom he was very strongly attached. He used, when absent, to say, that he longed to be among his "russet coats" at Munden. He died in 1675.