Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER VII.

1 A man who could not en­joy his wife, freed from his dis­or­der. 5 A young man who had been be­witched, and turned in­to a mule mirac­ulous­ly cured by Christ be­ing put on his back, 28 and is mar­ried to the girl who had been cured of lep­rosy.

THEY came af­ter­wards to an­oth­er city, and had a mind to lodge there.

2 Ac­cord­ing­ly they went to a man’s house, who was new­ly mar­ried but by the in­flu­ence of sor­cer­ers could not en­joy his wife.

3 But they lodg­ing at his house that night, the man was freed of his dis­or­der.

4 And when they were prepar­ing ear­ly in the morn­ing to go for­ward on their jouney, the new-​mar­ried per­son hin­dered them, and pro­vid­ed a no­ble en­ter­tain­ment for them.

5 But go­ing for­ward on the mor­row, they came to an­oth­er city, and saw three wom­en go­ing from a cer­tain grave with great weep­ing.

6 When St. Mary saw them, she spake to the girl who was their com­pan­ion, say­ing, Go and in­quire of them, what is the mat­ter with them, and what mis­for­tune has be­fall­en them?

7 When the girl asked them, they made her no an­swer, but asked her again, Who are ye? and where are you go­ing? For the day is far spent, and night is at hand.

8 We are trav­ellers, saith the girl, and we are seek­ing for an inn to lodge at.

9 They replied, Go along with us, and lodge with us.

10 They then fol­lowed them, and were in­tro­duced in­to a new house, well fur­nished with all sorts of fur­ni­ture.

11 Now it was win­ter-​time, and the girl went in­to the par­lour where these wom­en were, and found them weep­ing and lament­ing as be­fore.

12 By them stood a mule, cov­ered over with silk, and an ebony col­lar hang­ing down from his neck, whom they kissed and were feed­ing.

13 But when the girl said, How hand­some, ladies, that mule is! they replied with tears, and said, This mule, which you see, was our broth­er, born of this same moth­er as we;

14 For when our fa­ther died, and left us a very large es­tate, and we had on­ly this broth­er, and we en­deav­oured to pro­cure him a suit­able match, and thought he should be mar­ried as oth­er men, some gid­dy and jeal­ous wom­en be­witched him with­out our knowl­edge.

15 And we one night, a lit­tle be­fore day, while the doors of the house were all shut fast, saw this our broth­er was changed in­to a mule, such as you now see him to be:

16 And we in the melan­choly con­di­tion in which you see us, hav­ing no fa­ther to com­fort us, have ap­plied to all the wise men, ma­gi­cians, and di­vin­ers in the world, but they have been of no ser­vice to us.

17 As of­ten there­fore as we find our­selves op­pressed with grief, we rise and go with this our moth­er to our fa­ther’s tomb, where, when we have cried suf­fi­cient­ly, we re­turn home.

18 When the girl had heard this she said, Take courage, and cease your fears, for you have a rem­edy for your af­flic­tions near at hand even amoung you and in the midst of your house.

19 For I was al­so lep­rous; but when I saw this wom­an, and this lit­tle in­fant with her, whose name is Je­sus, I sprin­kled my body with the wa­ter with which his moth­er had washed him and I was present­ly made well.

20 And I am cer­tain that he is al­so ca­pa­ble of re­liev­ing you un­der your dis­tress. Where­fore arise, go to my mis­tress Mary, and when you have brought her in­to your own par­lour, dis­close to her the se­cret, at the same time earnest­ly be­seech­ing her to com­pas­sion­ate your case.

21 As soon as the wom­en had heard the girl’s dis­course, they has­tened away to the La­dy St. Mary, in­tro­duced them­selves to her, and sit­ting down be­fore her, they wept.

22 And said, O our La­dy St. Mary, pity your hand­maids, for we have no head of our fam­ily, no one el­der than us; no fa­ther or broth­er to go in or out be­fore us.

23 But this mule, which you see, was our broth­er, which some wom­en by witchcraft have brought in­to this con­di­tion which you see: we there­fore en­treat you to com­pas­sion­ate us.

24 Here­upon St. Mary was grieved at their case, and tak­ing the Lord Je­sus, put him up­on the back of the mule.

25 And said to her son, O Je­sus Christ, re­store (or heal) ac­cord­ing to thy ex­traor­di­nary pow­er this mule, and grant him to have again the shape of a man and a ra­tio­nal crea­ture, as he had for­mer­ly.

26 This was scarce said by the La­dy St. Mary, but the mule im­me­di­ate­ly passed in­to a hu­man form, and be­came a young man with­out any de­for­mi­ty.

27 Then he and his moth­er and the sis­ters wor­shipped the La­dy St. Mary, and lift­ing the child up­on their heads, they kissed him, and said, Blessed is thy moth­er, O Je­sus, O Saviour of the world! Blessed are the eyes which are so hap­py to see thee.

28 Then both the sis­ters told their moth­er, say­ing, Of a truth, our broth­er is re­stored to his for­mer shape by the help of the Lord Je­sus Christ, and the kind­ness of that girl who told us of Mary and her son.

29 And inas­much as our broth­er is un­mar­ried, it is fit that we mar­ry him to this girl their ser­vant.

30 When they had con­sult­ed Mary in this mat­ter, and she had giv­en her con­sent, they made a splen­did wed­ding for this girl.

31 And so their sor­row be­ing turned in­to glad­ness, and their mourn­ing in­to mirth, they be­gan to re­joice, and to make mer­ry, and sing, be­ing dressed in their rich­est at­tire, with bracelets.

32 Af­ter­wards they glo­ri­fied and praised God, say­ing, O Je­sus, son of David, who changest sor­row in­to glad­ness, and mourn­ing in­to mirth!

33 Af­ter this Joseph and Mary tar­ried there ten days, then went away, hav­ing re­ceived great re­spect from these peo­ple.

34 Who, when they took their leave of them, and re­turned home, cried,

35 But es­pe­cial­ly the girl.