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THE PREFACE.
THe SCOTS, by the most judicious Writers, and by those who have most diligently stu∣died their Antiquities, are acknowledged to be among the first who embraced the Faith of Christ: yea, they are said to be, by some, of the very first-fruits of the Gen∣tiles: For in few yeers after the Ascension of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Apostles and Disciples being constrained to leave Ierusalem and Iudea, by reason of the Persecutions raised against them by the Jews, according to the dispensati∣on of the All-wise God, went up and down the world; and speaking to every People in their own Language, declared unto them the glad Tydings of Salvation in Christ Jesus.* 1.1 Those who came into our Northern Parts, to wit, into Scot∣land, and first made known unto our Fathers the Mysteries of Heaven, were of the disciples of Iohn the Apostle.
Some yeers thereafter, to wit, in the second Persecution raised against the Christians, many Britons Provincials of the Empire, professing the Name of Christ, left their own coun∣trey, and went into Scotland, for shelter from the generall Massacre then executed thorowout the whole Empire, by that bloody Butcher Domitian; and to enjoy the freedom of the Gospel, which they knew to be received then in Scot∣land. Among these fugitive Britons there were sundry learn∣ed