Of the once happy land, eager as wolves
But prompt with method and train'd insolence.*
And first those dark officials began,

With feigning blandishment and flattering tongue,
Guile-tipt, to lure the artless train of Christ,
To dare the badge of haughty Babylon,
And to her godless ritual+ comport.

Meekly repuls'd, they staunch return as oft,
Seducingly to fawn; cruel caress.

Not stinting; while blind inconsid❜rate kings
Lackey'd their purposes: anon to find
Such friendship fatal, and of charm to make
The crown to topple on their fatuous heads.
But falling short such suasive measures soft,
Swift the black legion foully did prepare,
And whet the knife ecclesiastical,

With murderous intent upon the life

Of the beneficent, and beauteous truth ;
Paction'd, within one cemetery deep,
Wasteful and wide, to spread forgetfulness
On all abettors of inspired writ.

The suppression of the Culdees, by the church of Rome, took place about anno 1250.

To keep Easter, and various rites at same time as the Romish Church, &c. &c.-See Milner and Jamieson.

‡ Particularly William, King of Scotland.

*

Thy woman's heart 'twould wound, did I unfold
The record fell of treachery and wrong,*
That mark'd the cruel process of the change.
'Twas done; and the dark angel final hung
His curtain o'er the land; and sainted name
Of Culdee perished for ever, lost

Even from Iona's isle: and pass'd henceforth
All trace and shadow of the words of life,
Whelmed of popery: save that benev❜lent ment

See Jamieson's Culdees.

+ It is well known among Antiquaries, that the Celtic churches which existed in the British Isles during the dark ages, were, in discipline, doctrine and practice, utterly adverse to that of Rome. Some writers go so far as to maintain, that a part of those ancient societies were not Episcopal, but Presbyterial; and thus were still further removed from the ecclesiastical structure, at least, of the Papacy. However this may be, they stood out for many centuries with the resolution of martyrs, against the invading corruptions of the papal Babylon. And the final suppression of the Culdees, after ages of cruel persecution, took place at St. Andrew's in North Britain, only in 1250. It is of great importance, in the debate between Protestants and Papists, to ascertain and maintain the character of these Churches. Those who wish for information on the subject may consult Buchanan's Preface to Knox's History; but particularly the learned work of Dr. Jamieson upon the Culdees; and Bede and other authors there quoted.

It were to have been wished, that historians, instead of being at incredible pains in preserving evidence of the polity of the Culdees, and whether they were Episcopalians or Presbyterians, had cared

Permit their wish to be their hope, that hid
In trackless solitudes, and lonely depths
Of Scottish thicket, covering stealthy cave,
The godly record liv'd. Or that 'twas spoke
Traditional by hoary sire to son,

And thus within the latent breast abode
Of rustic neighbourhoods, like smother'd fire,
Awoke long after by the breath of Knox.

more about transmitting to posterity, authentic memorials of their doctrine and practice, which must at least have been of a very opposite quality from that of Rome.

Whether the supposition in the text, of the secret survival of their christian principles till Knox's time, be correct or not, enquirers must judge for themselves. The martyrs Resby and Craw, (see Knox's History,) who intervened about 1422 and 1431, were clearly not Culdees, but Wickliffites. And neither do the Lollards of Kyle in Airshire appear to have been of Culdee origin. . Nevertheless, I may be permitted to say, that if any author could, on solid grounds, and perhaps in substantial prose, demonstrate, that in Great Britain and Ireland, genuine and anti-papal christianity prevailed from an early century, till the suppression of the Culdees in the 13th, such a one ought to receive the unfeigned gratitude of all benevolent men. For it is no small weight on the mind of a philanthropist, to think that his ancestors in this land, his own flesh and blood, must be held during 14 centuries after the advent of the Saviour, as on the same footing with gentile kingdoms, who sat in the region and shadow of death; or, at best, with those whose christianity was debased by Romish superstition, or altogether destroyed by it.

MRS. CLAYPole.

Who quits this word, his breast to him unlocks Who swerves not,* but will cleave him to the heart.

He that doth stake his purpose, and decide
Himself to conquer, grind his stubborn will,

And underbend his rampant lusts, to reach
Welcome more high than he who winneth towers ;†
That enterpriseth the soul sad'ning cross,

Bent on the affecting trace of that bright lamb
Slain from the eternal age;‡ this warrior sage
Finds soldiership of Christ a toil of soul,
Tho' fit with that refulgent record|| dear,
With its full store of promise fortified,
Led of its warning voice, and cheer'd amain
By living waters from its sacred fount.
But of the oracle of God bereft,

Sicklied in superstitious man's device,
Unless by miracle sustain'd, would die.

And they such stretch of grace may not expect
Who gloomily inter that living page.

* Satan.
+ Messiah,

+ Prov. xvi. 32.

Bible.

The prime of heathen worthies did mistrust
Man's mind a broken empire :* and each soul,
Quest man of self, in secret weds this truth.
But scripture notes it with a sovran power
And emphasis of postulate supreme;†

And sweetly shews that when sin-drenched man
With paradise matur'd delib'rate breach,

The kindness of the godhead streamed forth
Across the dismal scene. So weeps the sun
Relenting, and 'mong tearful clouds bestows
His parting ray. And hence the darkling spring
Of prophecy, the few and hallowed words
Foreboding, that a serpent‡ should be bruis'd
By one in fashion like the sons of men ;
Whereby the widowy and heart broken earth
Might wait her curse repeal'd, and righteousness
A native of her fragrant breast return.

From this memorial, unfeign'd and pure,
Which shall outlast the stedfast spheres, we learn
That Abraham held a promise, whence his heart
Teem'd full of joy and falling in the grave,
He gladden'd at the ransom|| of his soul;

* By Original Sin.

+ Ps. liii. 3.

Gen. iii. 15.

John viii. 56.