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Bible Dictionaries
Labadists
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
or Were so called from their founder, John Labadie, a native of France. He was originally in the Romish communion; but leaving that, he became a member of the reformed church, and performed with reputation the ministerial functions in France, Switzerland, and Holland. He at length erected a new community, which resided successively at Middleburg, in Zealand, Amsterdam, Hervorden, and at Altona, where he died about 1674. After his death, his followers removed their wandering community to Wiewert, in the district of North Holland, where it soon fell into oblivion. If we are to judge of the Labadists by their own account, they did not differ from the reformed church so much in their tenets and doctrines as in their manners and rules of discipline; yet it seems that Labadie had some strange notions. Among other things, he maintained that God might and did, on certain occasions, deceive men; that the faithful ought to have all things in common; that there is no subordination or distinction of rank in the true church; that in reading the Scriptures greater attention should be paid to the internal inspiration of the Holy Spirit than to the words of the text; that the observation of Sunday was a matter of indifference; that the contemplative life is a state of grace and union with God, and the very height of perfection.
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Buck, Charles. Entry for 'Labadists'. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/cbd/l/labadists.html. 1802.
