According to their confession of faith {Declaration d. reinen Lehre i(. d. rjesunden Glaubens d. Jolt, de L., etc., Heref. 1671), the Labadists did not entirely differ from the lieformed Church, whose symbolic books they ac- cepted. ■ They supported themselves by manual labor, and, after the example of the primitive Church, pos- sessed everything in common; they insisted that great Stress is to be laid on the internal light, and that it alone can make the outer revelation intelligible. Thej'', ho:v- ever, declared against infant baptism ; also against the second baptism of the Anabaptists; and rejected the ob- servance of the Sabbath on the plea that for them life was a perpetual Sabbath, etc. The reproach of immo- rality which some Roman Catholic writers have prefer- red against them is unfounded ; they recognised and . honored the institution of matrimony. After Labadie's death his followers removed to Wiewert, in the duchy of Clevcs, but gained few adherents, and the sect grad- * ually disappeared about the middle of the 18th century. At the opening of the 18th century they attempted to establish themselves in the United States of Amer- ica; a few of their number settled on the banks of the Hudson liivcr as missionaries, but they do not seem to have taken a special hold. See A. I'auli and J. Hund, Antilabadie (Hamm, lG71,4to) ; L. G. EngelschaU, Rich- ti(/e Vorurtheile d. hcutiyen Welt (1716), p. 652-682; Dr. Schotel, A . M. v. Schurmann (Hertogenb. 1853) ; Arnold, Kirchen u. Ketzeryesch, ii, 680 ; Hagenbacli, Gesch. der Iteformation, iv, 307 scj. ; Giibel, Gesch. d. chjistl. Lehens in d. Rheinisch-Westphalischen evangel. Kirche (Coblenz, 1852 ), vol. ii ; Ziitschr. d. histor. theol. 1853, 1854, Labadists. See Lakadie.
Labagh, Pf.ter, D.D., a Reformed (Dutch) minister, was born in 1773 in New York city, of French and Hol- landish descent. After receiving his classical education from Dr. Peter Wilson, of Ilackensack, N.J.. liis theolog- ical studies were pursued under Drs. Froeliglj and Liv- ingston, professors of theology in the Reformed Dutch Church. He was licensed in 179G, and immediately went to AVcsteni New York on a tour of missi(mary ex- ploration, and afterwards proceeded on horsqback to Ken- tucky, where he organized a Church in INIercer County. Returning to New York, lie settled as a ])astor in Green- bush, Rensselaer County, where lie remained until 1809, and then removed to the united churches of Shannock
and Ilarlingcn. He retained the pastorate of the latter Church until 1844. He died among his own people in 1851S, revered and beloved by all. Dr. Labagh possessed an active, acute, and powerful mind, rapid in its move- ments, sound in its conclusions, and distinguished by great accuracy of judgment. In ecclesiastical assem- blies he was always a leading debater and comisellor. In the endowment of the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, and in all the great movements of his de- nomination, he was a vigorous and successful worker. He was a clear, strong, and experimental preacher. During the great revival of 1831 his Church experi- enced a work of grace which " shook the whole commu- nity for miles around."' This was the crowning glory of his long ministry. His latter years wore spent in patriarchal retirement. He was cheerful, happy, over- flowing with good-humor, mother-wit, and strong com- mon sense, and, above all, with a deep piety which illu- mined his ministry and consecrates his memory. A Memoir of him was published in 1860 by Rev. John A. Todd, D.D. (12mo). (W. J. R. T.)
La'ban (Hebrew Lahan', '33, vMte, as frequently ; corap. Simonis, Onom. V. T. p. 100 ; Septuag. Aa jiav, but Aoliuv in Deut. i, 1 ; Josephus Ac'ijiavoQ,Ant. i, 16, 2), the name of a man and also of a place.
1. An Aramican herd-owner in IMcsopotamia, son of Bethuel (Gen. xxviii,5), and kinsman of Abraham (Gen. xxlv, 15, 19), being a grandson ('a, not simply "son," as usual; see Gesenius, Thesaur.-p.'i\&) of Nahor (Gen. xxix, 5). During the lifetime of his father, and by his own consent, his sister Rebekah was married to Isaac in Palestine (Gen. xxiv, 50 sq.). B.C. 2024. See Rebek- ah. Jacob, one of the sons by this marriage, on leaving home through fear of Esau, complied with his parents' wishes b}' contracting a still closer affinity with the fam- ily of his uncle Laban, and Avhile seeking the hand of his daughter Rachel at the price of seven years' toil, was eventuallv compelled bv Laban's artifice to marrv first his oldest daughter, Leah (Gen. xxix). B.C. 1927ll920. See Jacob. When Jacob, having fulfilled the addi- tional seven years' service thus imposed upon him, and six years more under a contract to take care of his cat- tle (in which time he managed to repay his overreach- ing uncle by a less culpable stratagem), was returning b}^ stealth across the Euphrates, Laban pursued him with intentions that were only diverted by a preternatural dream, and, overtaking him at Mt.GUead, charged him with the abduction of his daughters and the theft of his household gods, which Rachel had clandestinely carried off, and now concealed by a trick characteristic of her family, but was at length pacified, and formed a solemn treaty of amity with Jacob that should ruitually bind their posterity ((!en. xxx, xxxi). B.C. 1907. Nie- meyer {Charukt. ii,246) has represented Laban in a very odious light, but his conduct appears to have been in keeping with the customs of the times, and, indeed, of nomades in all ages, and compares not unfavorably with that of Jacob himself. (See Kitto, /^«i7// Illustra. vol. i; Abulfeda, Anteislatn, cd. Fleischer, p. 25; Hitzig, Ge- schichte Israel [Lpz. 1869], p. 40, 49 sq.; E\va\d,IJistori/ of Israel [transl. London, 1869], i, 346 sq.)— Winer, ii, 1 sq. " The mere possession of teraphim, which the Jews at no time consistently condemned (comp. Judg. xvii, xviii ; 1 Sam. xix, 13 ; IIos. iii, 4), does not prove Laban to have been an idolater; but that he must have been so appears with some probability from xxxi. 53 ('the gods of Nahor'), and from the expression iriwnS, in xxx, 27 ; A. Y., ^ I have learnt lig experience,' but proper- ly ' I have divined' or ' learnt by an augurj'' (comp. xliv, 15 ; 1 Kings xx, 33), showing that he was addicted to pagan superstitious" (Kitto).