THE Scotch Counsellor.  
Communicating his advice to all that stand well-affected in ENGLAND to King and Parliament.  
With a reprehension of all those who refuse to help the Lord against the mighty.  
ALSO showing WHAT SHALL BE THE EVENT OF THESE TROUBLRS.  
Written by reason of an eminent person in this kingdom deserting the Cause, and flying: and now published for the common good.  
Imprimatur. ja: Cranford.  
LONDON, Printed by R. Austin and A. Coe. 1643.   

The Scotch Counsellor, communicating his advice to his brethren in ENGLAND.  
Beloved in the Lord,  
THE great comfort and content that we have received each from other these many years, by the intercourse of letters, having been of late detarded, did beget in me a kind of jealousy, that either your love unto me was grown cold, or your zeal unto the cause of God much abated; or else I suppose you could not so long have kept pen from paper: But I having now at last (through my importunity) exhausted as it were a letter from you, I find as much alteration in you as my former jealousy deemed, which hath filled me with great discontent, especially when I find you minded to desert the cause of God, and fly for your own safety: And that for these reasons: 

1. In regard of the Distractions amongst you.  
2. To preserve your Estate.  
3. In regard of inability to help.  
4. Fear of the enemies great power.  
5. Unlikelihood of Reformation.    
Surely these reasons arise from your own conceit, being suggested by the spirit of Error; the invalidity whereof I shall labour to show you by the evidence of the truth of God's word. But before I come to your reasons, I shall speak something concerning your flying. This counsel arising from yourself, may cause the Lord so to forsake and fly from you, that you may eat of the fruit of your own way, and be filled with your own devices, Pro. 1. 31. For there is a way that seemeth right unto men, but the issues thereof are death, Pro. 14. 12. You think to fly for safety from the Church of God now in distress, and so strip yourself naked of God's protection, and lay yourself open to all dangers. But if you will fly, Fly unto the Lord, for with him alone thero is safety, Prov. 18. 10. and put no confidence in the world, nor in any worldly thing, no not in Princes, Psalm. 118. 9 It is a sign you never had love to, nor found comfort in the Church your mother, when you sever yourself from the rest of her children, (your brethren and sisters) leaving them to undergo what danger you fear; and not purposing (if misery come upon them) to yield them any help or comfort at all. O do not so, but remember what a bitter curse was pronounced against the inhabitants of Merez, because they came not forth willingly to help the Lord against the mighty. What a curse then think you would have belonged unto them, if they had fled from their help as you resolve to do? Recant then (I beseech you) this your wicked error, & give no such evil example unto others: For if you may fly, another also may, and so two, ten, an hundred, a thousand, yea all as well as you, and so leave the Lord's Vineyard to be destroyed by the wild boars of the forest without hope of recovery.  
The Idolatrous Papists herein outstrip you in their blind zeal for Antichrist: They are so far from flying, that they join themselves in association, holding and flocking together like so many swarms of Locusts out of the bottomless pit, not only in our own country, but come also from foreign Nations, and join hand in hand with them to work wickedness, endeavouring by all possible means again to establish their abominable idolatry in this kingdom. O let in never be heard in England, nor published in our gates in Scotland, that this cursed brood of Antichrist should be more zealous for the Pope and the devil, than the children of God should be for Christ and his Church. And so I come from your flying to your first Reason, which is,  

The great Distractions amongst you.  
Alas! This should be no reason to make you faint in your way to Zion. It is an ordinary thing to see distractions both in kingdoms, Churches, Families, yea, in all Societies, the envious Man is always so ready to sow the Tares of dissension among the people of God, though never so much bent to peace, knowing that a kingdom once divided, is half overcome, and cannot long stand in safety. What great distraction and amazement was there in the kingdom of Judah in the days of good King Hezekiah, with the threatening of Senacharib, and the reviling of Rabshakeh, yet we read not that either he or any of his good subjects fled to any but the Lord, who gave him victory over his enemies, and established his Kingdom in peace, wherein he rejoiced, 2 King. 20. 19 The Churches of God were not free from trouble and distractions even in the Apostles times, as you may read in the Acts, chap. 15. yet it discouraged not the Apostles from executing their offices, and afterwards God gave peace unto the Churches. Great distraction was in the family of good Jacob, when he supposed Joseph had been torn in peaces with wild beasts: and when his son Benjamin was left behind in Egypt, and also when Simeon and Levi had massacred the Shechemites, Gen. 24. None of God's people are free from troubles and distractions: For man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, Iob. 5. 7. Let not troubles then dishearten you, but walk before the Lord and be upright, and he shall let you see your desire upon your enemies.  
Another reason you allege, which is this, The preservation of your estate. Here you show yourself to be of the mind of Demas, to love the present world more than the children of God, 2 Tim. 4. 10. Oh far be this from you! How is it that I hear such a thing of you? If I had not had it under your hand and seal, I should not have given credit thereunto. Mark how the holy Ghost teacheth you a way to preserve your estate, Prov. 3. 9, 10. Honour the Lord with thy riches, and with the first fruits of thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst forth with new wine. Our Saviour Christ also saith, that whosoever shall give but a cup of cold water to a Prophet, shall not lose his reward, Matth. 10. 41, 42. And he that casteth his bread upon the waters [that is, upon the afflicted] after many days he shall find it, Eccles 11. 1.  
Me thinks these precious promises, and many more which I could here set down, should excite you not only to be liberal in parting with your substance to the relief of the poor Church of God, now in great distress, but even to give your life for the same, as our Saviour Christ hath done before you, Ephes. 2. 25, 26, 27, 29. Do but consider how many of your dear brethren in the kingdom of England have been so far from preferring their worldly treasure before the good of God's Church, that they have not only liberally contributed thereto, but even sacrified their lives in the cause against the enemies thereof, whose memory shall be recorded with the just, when the name of those that desert the same shall infamously perish in oblivion.  
Consider again, I pray you, the pestilent sect of papistical Malignants, who spare no cost they possibly can procure either by begging, borrowing, selling, pawning, mortgaging, filching, stealing, oppressing, and all to re-edify the Synagogue of Satan and Antichrist again in this kingdom. This generation of Vipers shall rise up in judgement against all those that come not forth to help the Lord against the mighty. And so I come to your third reason, which is your inability to help.  
To which I answer, The help that is required in such a case as this, is fourfold, viz. either in body, in purse, in counsel, or in prayer: and though I nominate prayer last, yet is it to be joined with the first, and also with all the rest; for no action can be well performed without it. But grant that you are to be excused for the first, in regard of age and other infirmities attending thereon: yet for the second you can have no such pretence to excuse yourself, God having blessed you with abundance to do good, either in this or any other kind, if your heart be answerable thereto. And therefore remember Salomon's caution, Prov. 24. 25. He that spareth more than is meet, shall surely come to poverty. So than if you extend not your liberality in this business for the public good of God's Church, you spare more than is meet, and God is able to send a thousand crosses upon you to diminish that which you so carefully keep.  
And if you be not able in body nor willing in your means, yet be not deficient by good counsel to provoke and encourage others, and join with the Church in hearty and unfeigned prayer, and you shall see God will send as strange a deliverance unto the Church, as he did unto Peter at the prayers of the Church: of which admirable deliverance you may read at large in the Acts of the Apostles, chap. 12.  
Your fourth reason is the potency of the enemy. O let not this discourage you: For though their power be never so great, yet the power of God is greater: and if he be on our side, [as undoubtedly he is] what need we fear what power is against us? Rom. 8. 31. And although they say in the pride of their hearts as once the Egyptians did, Exod. 15. 9 I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Mark what followeth, the Lord did but blow with his wind, and the Sea covered them, and they sank as lead in the mighty waters. And therefore I say unto you as Moses said to the children of Israel, fear not, stand still, and see the salvatian of the Lord, Exod. 14. 13. For of this you may be sure, the more they prevail, and the stronger they grow, the more they exalt themselves in the pride of their hearts, to the filling up of the measure of their iniquities, and the sooner becoming the objects of God's wrath in their sudden destruction. For than the Lord shall speak to them in his anger, and vex them in his sore displeasure. And their lofty looks shall be humbled, and their haughtiness bowed down, Isai. 2. 11. And as a whirl wind passeth away, so shall they be no more, but the righteous shall be an everlasting foundation, Pro. 10. 25.  
And as they are by their pride exalted to their destruction, so are the people and children of God by suffering persecution, affliction and oppression under them, fitted for mercy and deliverance: for when the afflicted cry unto the Lord, he delivereth them out of all their distresses, as you may comfortably read in Psal. 107. Be therefore faithful and obedient, and you shall have cause (in your happy deliverance) with holy David, to say, Other men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the sons of men. fear not therefore their mighty power, nor their cruel oppression, For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous: but God shall send peace on Israel. And so I come to your last Reason, which is, unlikelihood of Reformation.  
When it is most unlikely with man, yea when it seems impossible, then is it most likely and possible with God. I will give you two instances herein. In the second of the Kings and seventh chapter, when the famine was great in Samaria, and the Prophet prophesying of the great plenty that should ensue the next day, that the Lord on whole hand the King leaned, thought it impossible although the windows of Heaven should be opened; yet it came to pass according to the words of the Prophet, and he for his incredulity was not permitted to taste thereof. Therefore trust you in the Lord always: for with him unlikelihood is likely, and impossibilities are possible.  
Another instance almost yet in the memory of some men living, viz. after the death of that hopeful young King Edward the sixth, when Queen Mary got the crown, and had established Popery in your kingdom of England, there was then little likelihood of Reformation; but when she had strengthened herself by marrying with a Popish Prince, there was then far less: yet here was some hope left, that she might have died without issue. But when she had conceived with child, than there was no hope left at all. And yet even then was the church's deliverances nearest at hand, when the Lord turned the storm of Antichristian fury into a sweet and delectable calm of grace and mercy, till now of late some of that viperous brood are again sprung up to disturb our peace. But be you faithful, and continue constant in all obedience, and you shall see that God will yet again build up the walls of Jerusalem, and repair all her breaches. And thus I conclude with the Apostle John in his 2. Epistle and 12. verse, Having many things to write unto you, I will not write with paper and ink, but hope to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.  
Edinburgh, Nov. 6. 1643. Yours to love and pray for you, Geo: Anderson.   
FINIS.