Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/472

356 a great voice like thunder, saying, O ye princes, lift up your gates, and be ye lifted up ye gates of Hades, and the King of Glory shall come in. Hades, seeing that they cried this twice, said, as if he knew not, Who is the King of Glory? David answered and said to Hades, I understand the words of this cry, for I prophesied the same by his Spirit; and now, what I said above I say to thee, The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, He is the King of Glory. And the Lord himself hath looked down from heaven upon earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and to loose the children of the slain. And now most vile and most polluted Hades, Open thy gates that the King of Glory may come in. When David said this to Hades, the Lord of Majesty came in the form of man, and illumined the eternal darkness, and broke the indissoluble chains, and the help of unconquered excellence visited us who sat in the deep darkness of offences, and in the death-shadow of sins.

seeing these things. Hades, and Death, and their wicked agents, with their cruel ministers, trembled at the brightness of so great a light, perceived in their own realms, while they suddenly beheld Christ in