Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/467

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LATIN GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS.
351

to visit us as we sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

CHAPTER III. (XIX.)

And when father Adam, the first-formed, heard this, that Jesus was baptised in the Jordan, he cried to his son Seth, Tell unto thy sons, the patriarchs and prophets, all that thou didst hear from Michael the Archangel, when I sent thee to the gates of Paradise to pray God to send thee his angel to give thee the oil of the tree of mercy, to anoint my body when I was sick. Then Seth drew nigh to the holy patriarchs and prophets, and said, When I Seth was praying to the Lord at the gates of Paradise, behold, Michael, the angel of the Lord, appeared unto me, saying, I am sent to thee by the Lord; I am appointed over the human body. I say unto thee, Seth, do not labour with tears by prayer and supplication for the oil of the tree of mercy to anoint thy father Adam for the pain of his body, for thou canst in no wise receive of it, save in the last days and times, nor until 5500 years have been accomplished; then shall come upon earth the most beloved Son of God to raise the body of Adam and the bodies of the dead, and at His coming He shall be baptised in the Jordan. But when He shall have gone forth from the water of Jordan, then with the oil of His mercy