Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/157

 arguments, that the commission which the Redeemer gave to the Apostles to preach the gospel should be understood as being general, and therefore applying to both hemispheres, in accordance with what He said to them before He ascended into heaven: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." As also relates St. Matthew: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The same also is written by the evangelist St. Luke. The answer to all this is, that it in no sense contradicts the distinction which has been made between the two principal folds of the gentiles which had to be taken from these two hemispheres; for in the passages quoted, Christ our Redeemer speaks in the persons of the Apostles, with all the apostolic men and preachers of the gospel who were to succeed them until the end of the world; but that which He committed to them bore immediate reference to the northern hemisphere, which was that which they divided amongst themselves and where they preached, for not one of the Apostles has been understood to have passed to the southern hemisphere. The words also which the Redeemer added in the abovementioned passage: "And there shall be one fold and one shepherd," prove that He there speaks of the fold which was to be converted from the southern hemisphere; because, until that hemisphere be settled, the preaching of the gospel will not have been consummated, and consequently the making one fold of the two hemispheres under one shepherd cannot be verified. Thus the conversion and spiritual and evangelical conquest of the southern hemisphere has remained to be effected by the Apostolic men of this kingdom. Moreover, long ago, the Divine Majesty foretold this same thing by the prophet Obadiah, who says thus: "The captivity of Jerusalem, which is in the Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south, and Saviours shall come up on Mount