A MESSAGE TO THE PHILADELPHIAN SOCIETY WHITHERSOEVER DISPERSED OVER THE WHOLE EARTH PRESENTED AS SIXTY PROPOSITIONS, BY JANE LEADE, 1679
[N.B. This has hitherto been known as the 1619 prophecy. Here it is presented in its fuller form, as retrieved from original manuscripts. The date was misread as 1619. It should have been 1679]
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. 1679] 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.
TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILADELPHIAN SOCIETY
INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1697
[Handwritten by Richard Roach, which we transcribed from the Manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
Reasons for the foundation and promotion of a Philadelphian Society offered to the consideration of all Christians.
Whereas the state of Christendom is at this day miserably torn and rent through of manifold divisions and sects of it, all equally pretending to be the True Church and Spouse of Christ,
Whereas also all that of learning, wisdom and power of man is able to do, has hitherto instead of Healing, served rather to widen the breaches of all Partys,
And whereas likewise there is not a Church anywhere visible, that is so one, as to be without all discord, so holy as to be without Spot or Wrinkle, or so Catholick as to be void of every degree of partiality and particularity,
It hath pleased our God and Father of compassion to stir up powerfully in this day some persons, as well as in other countries as in this Kingdom, deeply sensible of imperfections and corruptions of all churches and congregations whatsoever, but especially in their want of charity for one another and of their want of the faith which our blessed Lord has desired as a grain of Mustard Seed,
And soberly considering the insufficiency of Human Learning with regard to so glorious an attempt, as if the reunion of all the Torn Limbs of Christianity and the folly of its wisdom, as well as the weakness of its power, which is of this world in all that is without or above its sphere,
To which separately and faintly, in obedience to our Dear Lord and Master, with all Humility, Resignation, and Perseverance, for Power from on High,
Whereby the day of his Kingdom may come to be witnessed and proclaimed in all parts of the world, for wisdom from above which sits on the Throne of God and is the Spirit of Revelation which alone can enable any to see into and to govern in all Spiritual Affairs,
And lastly for that Divine Learning concerning which it is prophesied that all should be taught of the Lord and which is the Secret Paths which the Vulters [i.e. Vulture’s] Eye neither has espied or ever can espy,
That so the Church and Bride of Christ may be hereby prepared and adorned to meet her beloved, being made throughout conformable unto him, through the Vital Operation and Resuscitation of his one Holy and Catholick Spirit in her.
Secondly – Wherefore we do not at all pretend to Appropriate or confine this Spirit to ourselves or by consequence hereof to set up for a new Sect or Church, but we do only propose that our Assembling and Convening together may be in order to keep warm that spirit of love which is shed abroad in our hearts towards you all and to strengthen one another in this Holy and Apostolical Faith which (primarily) concerns the Revelation of the Kingdom and Glory of God within the soul,
That so by waiting diligently upon and holding fast which we have already received of it, we may be at length, with others whom God shall call to be the firstfruits of a Virgin Church that may exactly correspond with the Titles whereby her Sovereign Head stiles [i.e. styles] himself writing to her, being made holy as he is holy, True as he is true, and bearing together with him the Key_of_David or the seals of the Kingdom, or Anointed with him and consecrated by his Holy Ghost into the Priestly, Prophetical, and Royal Order.
3.This is that perfect Model which we have before our eyes and do press after, but which we acknowledge ourselves very short of arriving to, therefore we look not back , though some of us may say that we have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have trusted in some degree the Living Word of God and the powers of the world to come, or of the future Blessed Age, but as if we had hitherto attained nothing, so do we strive to reach out to the mark of the Philadelphian_Prize. [The reason for their choice of this title was that the Philadelphian Church was the only one amongst the seven churches in Revelation to which the Lord had nothing negative to say. Ed.]
4. At present we are but as the rough hewn stones that are designed to enter into the foundation of a Goodly Structure, in much weakness and imperfection, in much Superfluity and Mixture with great unevenness and some Rubbish (and thus it was in great measure even with the Apostolical Church of Corinth, though so highly gifted), all which must first be done away and the Stones prepared apart for their place in the same, till being fitly cut and polished they be at last (by degrees) all brought together and the Tabernacle of David then finished, before the Personal Glory of the Lord from heaven, the trueSon_of_David in the Power of his Father will descend to fill it.
5.Our practice we would have to be Apostolical abating from Temporary and Particular Constitutions; conformable to the truth and power of the good Spirit of God, without whose inspiration we can never perfectly love him, nor worthyly magnify him; as he will be magnified and loved, when his Holy Will shall be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, and his Kingdom be also established here as it is there.
6. We receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments with the deepest Veneration; and the hope which we have for the full completion of every Promise and Prophecy therein contained can never be moved.
7. Our work is to pursue peace and love towards all men and to submit to every Ordinance of God, the Supreme Governor of the World, to Kings and all that are set in Authority over us, according as he in his wisdom thinks fit, for the good of the same in the old ministration of Secular Affairs.
Whoever would be further satisfied as to our Faith and Practice may find them described in the Spiritual Writers Ancient and Modern, and more particularly by some of our own Society.
THE FOUNTAIN OF GARDENS
[Extract from Jane Leade’s work, which was originally published in four volumes, and is now being re-published by ColleenDrounette in the Unites States.]
For here was revealed to me a great secret concerning the birth of the manchild, that its production would be after a marvellous invisible manner, begotten and generated from out of a pure virgin mind. This is Christ’s second birth, which is to know no more sorrow, curse or death. Christ in His first birth was a man of sorrows, suffering in the flesh with us, and in us. Now this birth in spirit is on this wise, a pure perfect spirit immaterial, unknowable matter, of which the transcendent inconceivable element giveth forth. And this becomes an all powerful body which can go in and out, up and down the earth and no mortal can see.
This is a strong and potent angel that can do great wonders of God from his own essentiality, from whence this angelical creature shall act its part in great love and meekness, yet still upholding sovereignty, and thereby securing the visible impotent body from those many evil things, whilst it remains an untransfigured body.
For this may be expedient for a covert and vail upon the inward, for that would not be bearable among mortals. But great will be the glory that this mortal figure will shine and be illustrated from the inward, united firstborn with spirit, with virgin wisdom through which its lost omnipotency will be recovered, as in the day when man was created in the very similitude of God, male and female.
THE TWO WITNESSES.
I saw two olive trees spreading out dropping their oil as a shower of rain. And it was said, “Thus shall the prepared earth be sown again with such olive seed as shall bring up anointed Christs all plentifully, that shall stand in this latter day upon the outward earth to appropriate and maintain the MELCHISEDEK-Kings right, the whole Kingdom shall spread to the ends of the earth.”
Then there were three bright suns in their eclipse, so as to be but half-suns in sight. And they wrought themselves out of the clouds and joined together and became one glorious SUN, which appeared with a rich and glorious crown upon the head of it.
I was made bold to ask what was their eclipsement. The Lord answered, “They do signify three days in which my witnesses have lain slain. The which time my glory and dominion hath been under an eclipse. But know and make it known to such, whom it may concern thus with me to reign, that the three days are accomplished and the three ministrations shall meet in One at the Half day, for the fulfilling that which so many foregoing ages have prophesied of. Now this half day is dawning; in which is to be understood the full height, or the one perfect day, which neither eclipse nor sunset shall be feared any more. In which time I will by my raised witnesses finish a mighty, strange, and marvellous work in the earth, such as yet hath never been. And although three dead winter seasons have passed upon my dead witnesses yet now they are called upon to rise out of their golden moulds as most terrible to their enemies and all beholders.”
I asked who the two witnesses are. A voice said, “Behold me, in my glorified humanity.” Then I did see an human figure transfigured into a body as a crystal glass, sending from all parts of its body flames of light which was flowing out of the Deity from the glorified humanity.
Only this much was made known to me that the mighty eagle from heaven is already so far descended as to hatch two eagle-birds that will figure out these two witnesses first and be as the two dropping olive trees that will multiply Christ in the earth as his burning Ray of Deity in a glorious humanity. That shall a full and mighty witness for God throughout the whole earth be.
Then a caution was given – to beware the tempter; to avoid all elevated aims, all designs that are not clear and justifiable in the eye of God; to make no terms and conditions with Him; to rejoice in the cross and in the dying marks of Jesus, to sink down into the most pure and naked resignation and to keep still upon that so even in the midst of paradisiacal enjoyments the serpent might not creep in to deceive, beguile and supplant.
