Theological Gleanings

 

A Message to the Philadelphian Society Withersoever Dispersed Over the Whole Earth Presented as Sixty Propositions, by Jane Leade, 1697

[N.B. This has hitherto been known as the 1619 prophecy. Here it is presented in its fuller form, as retrieved from original manuscripts]

1. There shall be a total and full redemption by Christ. 
2. This is a hidden mystery not to be understood without the revelation of the Holy Spirit. 
3. The Holy Spirit is at hand to reveal the same unto all holy seekers and loving inquirers. 
4. The completion of such a redemption is withheld and obstructed by the Apocalyptical Seals. 
5. Wherefore, as the Spirit of God shall open seal after seal, so shall this redemption come to be revealed both particularly and universally. 
6. In the gradual opening of the mystery of the redemption in Christ doth consist the unsearchable wisdom of God which may continually reveal new and fresh things to the worthy searchers. 
7. In order to which the Ark of the Testimony in Heaven shall be opened before the end of this world [i.e.age] and the Living Testimony which is therein contained shall be unsealed. 
8. The presence of this Divine Ark will constitute the Philadelphian Church, and wherever that is, there must the Ark of necessity be. 
9. The unsealing of the Living Testimony within the Ark of the Lord must begin the promulgation of the Everlasting Gospel of the Kingdom. 
10. The proclamation of the Testimony of the Kingdom will be as the sounding of a Trumpet to alarm all the Nations of the Earth, and more especially all the professions of Christianity, because it will be attended with the power of enacting all wonders. 
11. So there shall be an authoritative decision given forth immediately from Christ to the putting an end to all controversies concerning the True Church. 
12. This decision will be by the actual sealing of the members of this Church with the Name of God, giving them a commission to act by virtue of the same. This New Name will distinguish them from the seven thousand names of Babylon. 
13. The election and preparation of this Church is to be after a secret and hidden manner, as David in his minority was elected and anointed by the Prophet of the Lord; yet was not admitted to the outward possession of the Kingdom for a considerable time afterward. 
14. Of the stem of David a Virgin Church, which hath known nothing of man or of human constitution, is yet to be born. 
15. And if it is yet to be born, then it will require some considerable time before it gets out of its minority and arrives at full and mature age. 
16. The birth of this Virgin Church was visionally typified to St. John by the great wonder in heaven bringing forth her firstborn that was caught up to the throne of God. 
17. For as a virgin woman brought forth Christ after the flesh, so likewise a virgin woman is designed by God to bring forth the firstborn after the spirit, who shall be endowed with the Holy Ghost and with power. 
18. The Virgin that is hereto designed must be as of a pure spirit, so also of a clarified body and all over impregnated with the Holy Ghost. 
19.This Church so brought forth and signed with the seal of the Divine Name shall be adorned with the miraculous gifts and powers beyond whatever yet hath been. 
20. Hereby all Nations shall be brought into it, so shall it be the Catholic [i.e. Universal] Church according to the genuine sense and utmost latitude of the word. 
21. It must be an Anointed Church whereby it may truly bear the name of Christ or Christian, being with Him anointed to the Priestly, Prophetical, and Royal Dignity. 
22. Hence there will be no bonds or impositions, but the Holy Unction among these New Born Spirits will be all in all. 
23. This Universal and Anointed Church must be perfectly holy, as Christ Himself is holy, so that it may worthily bear the name of "The Lord our Holiness" and "The Lord our Righteousness." 
24. Until there be such a Church made ready upon the Earth, so holy, so universal, and so anointed, that is without all spot or wrinkle, and that is adorned as a Bride to meet her Bridegroom, Christ will not personally descend to solemnise this marriage and present the same to His Father. 
25. But when the Bridal Church shall be made and thoroughly cleansed and sanctified from every spot of defilement through the blood of Christ, then He will no longer delay His coming in person. 
26. There is not at this day [i.e. 1697] visible upon the Earth any holy, universal, anointed, and bridal Church; all the churches and professions being found light when weighed in the balance, therefore they are rejected by the Supreme Judge. 
27. Which rejection and condemnation will be for this end, that out of them a new and glorious Church may arise in whom there shall be no fault to be found like as He findeth none with the Philadelphian Church. 
28. Then shall the Glory of God and of the Lamb so rest upon it as the Cloud upon the typical Tabernacle, so that it shall be called the Tabernacle of Wisdom. 
29. Though this Philadelphian Church is not known in visibility, yet it may lie hidden at this present time as in the womb of the morning. 
30. Notwithstanding it will be brought forth into visibility as coming out of the wilderness within a short period. 
31. Then it will go on to multiply and propagate itself universally, not only to the number of the firstborn (which is 144,000) but also to the remnant of the seed against whom the Dragon shall make continual war. 
32. Wherefore the spirit of David shall most eminently revive in this Church and most specially in some or other selected members of it as the blossoming root which is to precede the Day of Solomon in the blessed Millennium. These will have might given them to overcome the Dragon and his Angels, even as David and his army overcame Goliath and the Philistines. 
33. This will be the standing up of Michael, the great prince of Israel, and will be as the appearance of Moses against Pharaoh, in order that the chosen seed may be brought out from their hard servitude. 
34. Egypt doth figure out this servile creation, under which each one of Abraham's seed doth groan. But a Prophet and a most prophetical generation will the Most High yet raise up who shall deliver His people by mere force of spiritual arms. 
35. For which there must be raised up certain head powers to bear the first shock, who are to be persons of great eminence and favour with the Godhead, [orig. "with the Trinity."] whose dread and fear shall fall upon all Nations (Visible and Invisible) because of the mighty acting power of the Holy Ghost which shall rest upon them. 
36. For Christ, before His own distinct and personal appearance, will first appear and represent Himself in some chosen vessel or vessels anointed to be leaders unto the rest and to bring them into the Promised Land, the New Creation State. 
37. Thus Moses, Joshua and Aaron may be considered as types of some upon whom the Spirit may yet come to rest in a greater proportion; whereby they shall make way for the ransomed of the Lord to return to Mount Zion. 
38. But none shall stand in any considerable office under God but those who have become "Tried Stones" after the pattern and similitude of the Chief Cornerstone, Christ Himself. 
39. This will be a fiery trial which very few will be able to pass or bear up in; wherefore the waiters for this "Visible Breaking Forth" of this Church are strictly charged to hold fast that which they have, and to wait together in the unity of pure love, praying in the Holy Ghost according to the Apostolic Pattern, that they may be sent forth to multiply more universally. 
40. This trial will be of absolute necessity to every one in particular and to all in general for the constituting and cementing of the true Philadelphian Church, by clearing away all the remaining infirmities of the natural mind, and the burning up of all that is hay, stubble, and dross, which they may have added to the work of the Lord. 
41. For nothing must remain in this pure Church but what can remain in the fire. For as a Refiner will the Lord purify the sons and daughters of it and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto Him and offering in perfect righteousness. 
42. Though the operation of the Holy Spirit in these waiters may for a long time contend with many infirmities and evils, yet if it be kept continually warm and watched to, it cannot at the last but work out a perfect cure and bring about a full and total redemption from the earth. 
43. There may be some at present living who may come to be thus fully and totally redeemed, having another body put on them that is one after the Priestly Order. 
44. This Priestly Anointed Body will render them impregnable and qualify them for that high degree of spiritual government to which they are called. 
45. Wherefore it is required on our part to suffer the spirit of burning to do upon us the refining work, fanning us with His fiery breath and searching every work within us until all be pure and clear and we thereby arrive at this fixed body from whence the wonders are to flow out. 
46. This body will be the sealing character of the Philadelphian Church. 
47. Upon this body will be the fixation of the Urim and Thummim that are to be appropriated to the priests of the Melchizedek Order, whose descent is not to be counted in the genealogy of that creation which is under the fall, but in the genealogy which is from the restoration. 
48. Hence these priests will have a deep inward search and a divine sight into the secret things of the Deity, and will be able to prophesy in a clear ground, not darkly and enigmatically. 
49. For they will know what is couched in the first originality of all beings and in the eternal archetype of nature, and so will be capacitated to bring them forth according to the divine council and ordination. 
50. The Lord, whose hand is lifted up, sweareth in truth and righteousness that from Abraham's line, according to the spirit, there shall arise an holy priesthood. Abraham and Sarah were a type of that which should be produced and manifested in the last age of the world. 
51. The mighty spirit of Cyrus is appointed to lay the foundation of the Third Temple and to support it in its building. 
52. These are such characteristics or marks whereby this pure Virgin Church, so founded, shall be certainly known and distinguished from all others, and whereby the unction and true sound of the Holy Ghost shall be discerned from that which is false, low, and counterfeit. 
53. There must be a manifestation of the Spirit wherewith to edify and raise up this Church suitable to the resurrection of Christ. 
54. This manifestation must be in the absoluteness of power as well as in the beauty of holiness, so bringing down Heaven upon Earth and representing here the New Jerusalem state. 
55. In order to which spirits that are thus purely begotten and born of God can ascend to the New Jerusalem above, where their Head in great majesty doth reign, and receive there such a mission whereby they shall be empowered to bring down to this world its transcendent glory. 
56. None but those that are risen with Christ in the regeneration can thus ascend, and none but those who have so ascended and received of His glory can descend again to communicate the same, being thereby His representatives upon the New Earth as subordinate priests and princes under Him. 
57. Now He that is ascended and glorified has made Himself as it were, our debtor; consequently He will not be wanting in qualifying and furnishing out certain high and principal instruments who shall be most humble and as little regarded as David was, whom He will dignify with great honour and priestly sovereignty for the drawing to them the scattered flocks and gathering them into one fold out of all nations and languages and kindreds. 
58. Therefore, there should be a holy emulation and ambition stirred up among all the lovers of Jesus that they may be of the Firstfruits unto Him that is risen from the dead, and so be made Principal Agents for Him and with Him, that they may, if possible, be of the number of the Firstborn of the New Jerusalem Mother. 
59. All the lovers of Jesus and the true waiters for His Kingdom in spirit, under whatsoever professions or forms they are dispersed, ought to be numbered among the Philadelphian spirits to whom this message appertains.  
60. The Society is not the Church, but preparatory to the Philadelphian Church. It consists of those who have associated to wait in the unity of the spirit for its glorious appearance and manifestation. Wherefore, there is such a strict charge given to them throughout this message to be watchful and quicken up their pace.

[1697 – 2008 = Written 311 years ago]