suggestions. She even went farther, and declared, CENT. XVII. in the name of the Lord, that this desirable event would happen, and that she had a divine commission to proclaim the approach of this glorious communion of saints, who were to be collected in one visible universal church, or kingdom, before the dissolution of this earthly globe. This prediction she delivered with a peculiar degree of confidence, from a notion that her Philadelphian society was the true kingdom of Christ, in which alone the divine spirit resided and reigned. We shall not mention the other dreams of this enthusiast, among which the famous doctrine of the final restoration of all intelligent beings to perfection and happiness held an eminent place. Leadley was less fortunate than Bourignon in this respect, that she had not such an eloquent and ingenius patron as Poiret to plead her cause, and to give an air of philosophy to her wild reveries; for Pordage and Bromley, who were the chief of her associates, had nothing to recommend them but their mystic piety and contemplative turn of mind. Pordage, indeed, was so far destitute of the powers of elocution and reasoning, that he even surpassed Jacob Behmen, whom he admired, in obscurity and nonsense; and, instead of imparting instruction to his readers, did no more than excite in them a stupid kind of awe by a high-sounding jingle of pompous words i. Jo. Wolf. Jaegeri Historia Sacra et Civilis, sæc. xvii. decenn. x. p. 90.-Petri Poireti Bibliotheca Mysticor. p. 161, 174, 283, 286. END OF VOL. V. APR 1 9 1918 |