In her 1683 Divine Revelations and Prophecies, Jane Lead (1624-1704) used “Elias” in a way similar to that of a forerunner:
This now is a dispensation of that
time mentioned, of a gathering in of heavenly spirits to Christ, out of the
reformed Paradise. But there is yet a fuller time and dispensation to come,
that shall answer to the Jerusalem above, which is said to come down. There is
a Mount Sion church to be gathered out from among all churches of men, by the
preparing ministry of an Elias spirit; who is to make ready against the
Lords’ return from that solemnized wedding with the present triumphant church.
Now what is meant by this Elias spirit, but such a spirit as hath power to
transform and translate at pleasure? THIS ELIAS IS NOT AN ABSTRACTED GHOST, BUT
IS IN CONJUNCTION WITH A FLAMING BODY OF LIGHT. This was that the apostles
eyed much in their days, and had the revelation thereof FOR THE LATTER AGES. (Jane
Lead, Divine Revelations and Prophecies [Nottingham: H. Wild, 1830], 31)
That Lead knew OT Elijah and NT Elias were one and the same person
can be seen, for example, at:
ELIJAH with his Fiery Chariot
will also come before this Great and Notable Day of Christ’s Third Coming,
to shew to some the way for to escape out of this Corporeal State, into that
other Principle the one Pure Eternal Element; from whence the Lord, the Mighty God
and Saviour, with all his Saints, IN HIS TIME WILL BE REVEALED. (Ibid., 16)
This is further evidence that “Elias” was understood to denote a “forerunner”
in the theological vocabulary of the late 17th century, something we find later in the writings of Alexander Campbell, Joseph Smith, and others in the 19th
century. On this, see, for e.g.: