LILITH. See DEMON, I., §§ 3-4.
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LILLIE, JOHN: American Presbyterian; b. at Kelso (38 m. s.e. of Edinburgh), Roxburghshire, Scotland, Dec. 16, 1812; d. at Kingston, N. Y., Feb. 23, 1867. He was graduated at the University of Edinburgh (1831; D.D., 1855); studied theology, and taught until 1834, when he emigrated to America. He then finished his theological studies at New Brunswick, N. J., and was ordained minister of the Reformed (Dutch) Church at Kingston, where he labored until he accepted the presidency of the grammar-school of the University of the City of New York (Aug., 1841). He had charge of the Broadway, afterward Stanton Street, Reformed (Dutch) Church (1843-48), and, in addition, edited the Jewish Chronicle (1844-48). He labored upon the revised version of the American Bible Union (1851-57); and in 1857 he reentered the pastorate, taking charge of the Presbyterian Church of Kingston. Lillie, who was acknowledged to be one of the best Biblical scholars in the United States, prepared for the American Bible Union valuable new versions and philological commentaries upon I-II Thessalonians, I-III John, II Peter, Jude, and Revelation (also on I Peter and James; but these were never printed). He wrote Lectures on the Epistles to the Thessalonians (New York, 1860); and translated, with additions, C. A. Auberlin and C. J. Riggenbach upon Thessalonians (in the Lange Commentary, 1868). His Lectures on the First and Second Epistles of Peter, with a Biographical Sketch by Dr. Schaff and James Inglis (1869) were published posthumously.
LIMBORCH, lim'börh", PHILIPPUS VAN: Dutch Remonstrant theologian; b. at Amsterdam June 19, 1633; d. there Apr. 30, 1712. He was the son of a lawyer, Frans van Limborch, and Geertruida Bischop, a niece of Episcopius, and was educated at Leyden and Utrecht for the law, afterward, when he had made up his mind to become a Remonstrant minister (see REMONSTRANTS), studying under Vossius and Barlæus in Amsterdam. In 1657 he accepted a call to Gouda, and ten years later he returned to Amsterdam; but after a few months of pastoral ministry be became a professor in the Remonstrant seminary (Apr. 19,1668). Here he held a position of influence for forty-five years, and his deep theological learning attracted many students. He was the leading Remonstrant theologian of the seventeenth century. His fame rests chiefly on his Theologia Christiana ad praxin pietatis ac promotionem pacis christianæ unice directa (Amsterdam, 1686; Eng. transl., A Compleat System, or Body of Divinity, 2 vols., London, 1713, republished, Macclesfield, 1807). He had a remarkable conversation with Isaac Orobio, a Spanish Jew who had been obliged to flee from the Inquisition and had established himself in Amsterdam as a physician, and published a report of it under the title De veritate religionis christianæ, amica collatio cum erudito Judæo (Gouda, 1687). Against the Roman Catholics he maintained the right of freedom in religious investigation, and himself showed a moderate and tolerant spirit toward those who differed from him. He shows little sympathy with the philosophy of his age--at least with Descartes and Spinoza--though he was much attracted by Locke's works and exchanged interesting letters with him. He wrote an excellent biography of Episcopius, and a short history of the Synod of Dort, as an introduction to the letters of the English delegates Hales and Balcanqual, besides editing the second part of the theological writings of Episcopius, the whole Opera theologica of Curcellæus, and the Præstantium ac eruditorum virorum epistolæ theologicæ et ecclesiasticæ.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Besides the works mentioned in the text, Limborch wrote Historia Inquisitionis, 2 parts, Amsterdam, 1692, Eng. transl. by S. Chandler, London, 1731. The funeral oration by J. Le Clerc was published Amsterdam, 1712, and is found in the transl. of the Theologia Christiana, ut sup. Consult: A. des Amorie van der Hoeven, Dissertatio de Phil. a Lbmborch, ib. 1843; Niceron, Mémoires, xi. 39 sqq.; C. F. Stäudlin, Geschichte der theologischen Wissenschaften, i. 297 sqq., ii. 87 sqq., Göttingen, 1810-11, Eng. transl., Hist. of Theological Knowledge and Literature, Edinburgh, 1835.
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