Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/562

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APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.

it to me, and spread it before my face, that falling to the ground and bending my knees I may adore it on the earth. Then Velosianus spread out his mantle, with the cloth of gold wherein the portrait of the Lord was depicted; and Tiberius the emperor saw it. And immediately he adored the image of the Lord, with a pure heart, and his flesh was made clean as the flesh of a little child. And all the blind, leprous, lame, dumb, deaf, and others suffering from various infirmities who were there, were healed and cured and cleansed.

Now Tiberius the emperor, with head bowed, and bending his knees, considering that saying — Blessed is the womb which bare thee and the breasts which thou hast sucked — groaned unto the Lord, with tears, saying, God of heaven and earth, suffer me not to sin, but confirm my soul and body, and place me in thy kingdom, for I ever trust in thy name. Deliver me from all evils, as thou deliveredst the three children[1] from the furnace of burning fire.

Then said Tiberius the emperor to Velosianus, Velosianus, hast thou seen any man of those who saw Christ? Velosianus answered, I have seen such. He said, Hast thou asked how they baptise them that believed in Christ? Velosianus said, My lord, we have here one of the disciples of Christ himself.

  1. Daniel and his two friends, Dan. iii. 19-27.