FOREWORD

    As we have undertaken to make the writings of Jane Leade available to the Body of Christ, we have become more and more certain that God has purposefully preserved them down through the centuries for those who are ordained and elected not only to hear of such things, but to enter into them.

    When we understand that these writings have undergone many, many copyings over the years, many of which were done by hand and then later have endured the "typos" and errors of today's typists, we get some idea as to just how intent God was to keep these writings free from contamination and to preserve them in a most unpolluted form.

    The form in which I found them was difficult, indeed, often impossible, to decipher. Because they were written in the style of another era, we found a great many sentences that seemed to run on almost indefinitely, sometimes for entire paragraphs, until one could no longer remember the original thought with which the sentence had begun.

    What we have sought to do is to make her writings more understandable and readable to the average reader with as little change in style and content as possible. More than once I found myself at a dead end with no possible way in the natural to go on because her meaning was not only obscure and unclear, it was missing altogether. I found places where an entire word was missing and a blank space left to fill in. In other instances, I came across words that I could find in no dictionary and for which I could find no meaning.

    It wasn't long before I saw that if I were going to finish this, knowing that I had begun under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I would need more than the usual help from the Lord. I would need divine guidance and, at times, a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit. For instance, I came to the phrase, ". . . the effence of sin ." I thought to myself, after pondering over it for quite a while, it must be "offence of sin."

    But the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Those are not f's but s's." Only then did I remember seeing old handwritten script which revealed "s's" that looked very much like "f's." I knew He was right! It was not "effence of sin" at all, but "essence of sin." Someone, years ago, had copied or typed the handwritten text and had mistaken the "s's" for "f's" and had typed it that way.

    Another example of what I found was the phrase, "sensation of the senses." I thought to myself, "That sounds pretty redundant and not at all the way Jane Leade writes elsewhere." I'm not a very good guesser, so I wrote it down as it was, even though I was not comfortable with it. Later, when I was reading over it, it came to me that it wasn't "sensation of the senses" at all, but "cessation of the senses."

    Some of the problems were not so difficult but they had nevertheless remained unchanged for perhaps hundreds of years. One such was the phrase, ". . . without spreading wings of an eagle." It should have read, ". . . with outspreading wings of an eagle." Another, ". . .as being invisible form." It should have read, ". . .as being in visible form." Yet another, ". . .we had expected, faith one to another. . ." was changed to read, ". . .we had expected, saith (remember they made their "s's" very much like "f's") one to another."

    On one occasion, and there were several, I came across this phrase, "is separating and _____________ the. . ." That was it. Just a blank line and nothing else to go on. But the Lord, who really undertook for us with these writings, gave the word to fill in the blank spaces when they occurred. The above example was made to read, "is separating and hiding the . . ."

    There were many other examples such as I have here shown, but these will suffice to show you that this has not been just an effort on the part of a man to bring these things forth and make them available to the Body of Christ at this time. It would not have been possible without the Holy Spirit who gave them in the first place to Jane Leade.

    A word of caution to the reader. There are some things contained herein which may be quite new to the reader. I would therefore urge the him to look to the Lord for light and understanding when reading these pages and not to quickly form opinions based on the traditions received from the elders. We are finding that much traditional truth is but error masquerading as truth. Allow that Holy Porter, Who keeps the door of your heart, to do what He is there for.

    He always recognizes the voice of the Good Shepherd and allows entrance of that which is from the Good Shepherd. There is always a resounding "Amen!", inwardly, when our Shepherd speaks, even at times when we haven't completely understood. But the voice of the stranger He will not open to, and even when a thing has sounded good, you have not been able to get an "amen" out of Him. If you have been in the way for very long, you know very well what I'm talking about.

    There is absolutely no doubt whatever in my own mind that we are living in the time when God will bring a people, a remnant, into the fullness of their inheritance. To this end, He is making known to them things which have been withheld for ages; things which the little sealed book of Revelation 5 contained and which were sealed until the day when God would bring forth a people who would not judge according to the seeing of the eye or the hearing of the ear. "...in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness" --Isaiah 29:18. We have been made to know and understand that only they that overcome will take part in the first resurrection of Revelation 20:4,5 and that many whose names are in the Lamb's Book of Life will not be resurrected until after the 1,000 years are finished.

    Traditional orthodox teaching has explained that to receive our portion with the unbeliever (at the same time the unbeliever receives his reward --Luke 12:46) means, we receive the same reward as the unbeliever, but it doesn't mean this at all. It simply means that those who do not attain to the first resurrection, which is a resurrection out from the dead, will receive their reward at the general resurrection of the dead after the thousand years is finished, when all the dead come forth, both righteous and unrighteous.

    If you doubt this, read Revelation 20:15 --"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." It is certain that if there were those not found in the book of life, there were also those who were found therein, for a search was made. It is with the first resurrection in view that the Lord is now making available to the Body those things which will, if heeded, be of help in making entrance into that New Creation, which is Christ.

    I believe that when these pages are read with understanding, looking to the Holy Spirit for light, many will be the hallelujahs issuing forth in thanksgiving for what He has so kindly held out and made available to us. For the day is quickly approaching wherein it shall surely be said, "His glory covers the heavens and the earth is full of His praise!" --Habakkuk 3:3.

    As Betty and I have worked on these writings we have found them to be faith-generating. I believe they will do no less than revolutionize the lives of many who are truly hungering and thirsting after God with all their hearts. For those who already have all their theological ducks neatly in a row and wish not to have them disturbed, this book will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. In either case, as it is whenever Christ is confronted in a living way, change will occur, as it must if we are to really move from one creation to another. It is our sincere prayer that God will make these things real to all who desire them.

- Larry and Betty Hodges