NOTICES OF PERU. 



B29 



Providence are acknowledged in taverns, and where there is 

 no national God to implore in times of public distress!" 



They generally look upon the separation of the church from 

 the state as a deplorable mistake, founded in a false spirit of 

 philosophy. 



Those in our country, who seem anxious to change the faith 

 of the Catholics in South America, should pause before they^ 

 make the attempt, and consider the immense evils their efforts 

 may bring on a people, who have already suffered much on ac- 

 count of religion. The learned and pious amongst the clergy, 

 are anxious for religious reformation, and correcting the many 

 abuses that they know to exist in the church ; but they are as 

 unwilling to change their doctrine, which they distinguish 

 from its teachers, as any of the many sects in the United States, 

 to give up theirs for the faith of the Romish church. It must 

 not be forgotten, that the people of South America are Chris- 

 tians, and not heathen, nor idolaters, like the western Indians, 

 or the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. I fear there is too 

 much truth in the charge of the prevalence of irreligion in the 

 United States. There is a broad field at home for the exercise 

 of missionary laborers. What would we think if the Peruvian 

 church should send tracts and missionaries to our happy coun- 

 try, to make proselytes to the Romish church? "Take the 

 beam from thine own eye, before thou removest the mote from 

 that of thy brother." 



Lately, the interesting question of the universal supremacy 

 of the Pope over the Catholic church, has given rise to some 

 learned articles in the newspapers, and an erudite pamphlet, of 

 216 pages, by the author of " Cartas Peruanas," in defence of 

 the Christian Primate. 



The argument against the Pope's supremacy, and consequent- 

 ly, of the independence of the bishops, turns on the question, 

 whether Christ gave "the keys" to Peter solely, or whether 

 the disciples also participated in the gift. The articles signed 

 Desenganador, in the papers alluded to, insist upon it, that 

 Christ gave the keys to all the disciples, as well as to Peter, and 

 that consequently, as they received them under the same in- 

 junctions, Peter could be in no manner superior to them, 

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