Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/177

 THE SOUTHERN LAND. 29

that the Redeemer would not entrust the charge to any- other prince but to thy illustrious house, do thou give all thy strength to the full and perfect completion of this grand and exalted ministry, so that no gap be left." By so doing Your Majesty will be able to say at the day of account, that which immediately afterwards is said by the Apostle : " Bonum certamen certavi, cursum consummavi, fidem scr- vavi ; in reliquo rejjosita est mihi corona justitias, quam reddet mihi Dominus in ilia die Justus judex, non solum autem mihi, sed his qui diligunt adventum ejus." I have fought the good fight gloriously, overcoming the greater power of Lucifer, liberating from his tyrannical and abomi- nable servitude so great a number of millions of souls in the southern hemisphere, which would have been lost and would have lost the Redeemer, who laid upon me the charge of this great and heroic deed ; I have finished most faithfully my course ; I have kept His faith pure in this Catholic semi- nary of my kingdom, and have transplanted it with the same purity into the hearts of the infinite number of gentiles which dwell in that spacious fold ; and thus may I justly hope from the hand of the King Eternal, in the great day of the universal account, the glorious and blessed crown of righ- teousness (which the Apostle hoped for himself) from having rendered this service, the most acceptable which any king or prince of the world shall have rendered to the Divine Majesty. The same Apostle afterwards goes on to say, that not only would it be given to him, but to all those that love the coming of the just Judge, which are those who hold in such account the fulfilment of their obligations, and espe- cially of so heavenly an one as this, that they may justly hope for the reward of that unspeakably glorious crown. Your Majesty may^ also entertain a like security of hope that, if the present proposition and prayer be accepted and undertaken with the earnest promptitude which, as has been shown, is enjoined upon you, there will be added to your