Excerpt from The History of the Church and State of Scotland: From the Accession of King Charles I. To the Year 1649; To Which Is Prefixed, an Abstract of the State of Religion in Scotland, From the Earliest Ages of Christianity, to the Year 1625

And, to satisfy my readers that I have studied their gratification more than my own ease, I reckon myself bound to in form them, that my general method is to make contents of every thing that seems memorable in all my authors, written and printed, each year by itself, and having thus laid before me the accounts given by every one, I pick out all that seems entertaining and of good authority in either, and so it comes to pass, that before the year 1637, I some times refer to different authors, accord ing as they furnish new matter, but after that time, Mr. Baillie's collections being more full, and of greater authority than any I have seen, I omit nothing in the historical part of his letters that seems of public and perpetual use from others I excerpt only so much as seems needful to supply or illustrate what is overlooked or but generally touched by Mr. Baillie; and, as he hath taken the trouble to collect most of the public papers respect ing church and state in that period, I judge it incumbent upon me, as well for the preservation of so valuable monu ments, as for supporting the credit of his relation, to give the copies of such of them at least as are not already in print; and where these natively make part of the narrative, I engross them as they occur, if otherwise I refer them to the appendix.

The following History bears the title both of Church and State, because, though I dip little farther in civil affairs than as they are connected with ecclesiastic, yet these are so interwoven, that I behoved to be somewhat particular in the one as well as the other, and might have hurt both by separating them.

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