Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/493

Rh

Karinus. Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, suffer me to speak thy marvels which thou hast wrought in the underworld. When, therefore, we were confined in darkness, and the shadow of death, in the underworld, suddenly there shone upon us a great light, and Hades and the gates of death trembled. And the voice of the Son of the Father most High was heard, as the sound of loud thunder, and crying out mightily, it thus exclaimed, O ye princes, throw back your gates, lift up the eternal gates; the King of Glory, Christ the Lord, approacheth to enter.

Then came Satan, the leader of death, fleeing in terror, saying to his servants and the shades below, O my servants and all ye shades below, run together, shut your gates, put against them iron bars, and fight bravely and resist, lest we who hold should be held captive in chains. Then all his impious agents were troubled, and began to shut the gates of death, with all diligence, little by little to fasten the locks and iron bars, to grasp all their ornaments with firmly closed hands, and to utter the howlings of a dreadful and most horrible voice.