NOTE H. (Page 292.)

MIRACLES ASCRIBED TO CHRIST IN THE BOOK ENTITLED “THE GOSPEL OF OUR SAVIOUR’S INFANCY.”

Christ is represented as speaking in the cradle, and telling his mother that he was her son.

The swaddling clothes in which he was wrapt, when thrown into the fire, would not burn. When his parents entered Egypt, in their flight from the cruelty of Herod, the girth of the saddle on which Mary rode broke, and the great idol of Egypt fell down at the approach of the infant Jesus.

By means of the babe’s swaddling clothes, several devils were cast out of a boy’s mouth, in the shape of crows and serpents.

A company of robbers, at the approach of Jesus, were frightened by being made to hear a sound, as of an army, &c.

It is related, that a girl was cured of a leprosy by means of water in which Christ’s body had been washed.

That a young man, who by witchcraft had been turned into a mule, was, upon Christ’s mounting him, turned again into a man.

On one occasion he is said to have turned certain boys, who hid themselves from him, into kids, and then at the intercession of their mothers restored them again to their proper shape.

A boy having put his hand into a partridge’s nest, to take out the eggs, was bit by a serpent, whereupon they brought him to Jesus, who directed them to carry him before him, to the place where he had received the injury. On coming to the spot, Jesus called for the serpent, and it presently came forth; and he said, “Go and suck out the poison which thou hast infused into that boy:” so the serpent crept to the boy, and took away all its poison again. He also cures his brother James, who, in gathering sticks, was bitten by a viper.

Being one day on the house-top, playing with some boys, one of them fell down, and was instantly killed. And the boy’s relations came and said to the Lord Jesus, “Thou didst throw our son down from the house-top;” but he denied it, and said, “Let us go and ask himself.” Then the Lord Jesus, going down, stood over the dead body, and said with a loud voice, “Zeinunus, Zeinunus, who threw thee down?” Then the dead boy answered, “Thou didst not throw me down, but such a one.”

Being, on a certain occasion, sent by his mother to the well for water, the pitcher broke, and he gathered up the water in his garment, and brought it to her.

When at the age of twelve years Jesus was at Jerusalem, a certain astronomer asked him whether he had studied astronomy. Upon which he told him the number of the spheres and heavenly bodies, &c. There was there also a philosopher, who asked the Lord Jesus whether he had ever studied physic. He replied, and explained to him physics and metaphysics, the powers of the body, its anatomy, &c. But from this time he began to conceal his miracles, and gave himself to the study of the law, till he arrived to the end of his thirtieth year.

See the “Gospel of our Saviour’s Infancy,” complete in the second volume of Jones on the Canon.