THE ANSWER OF THE general Assembly IN SCOTLAND, TO The Letter of some of their Reverend Brethren of the Ministry In ENGLAND, Sent by Mr Marshall, and Mr nigh to the said Assembly.  
Ordered to bee Printed.  
LONDON, Printed by G. Dexter, for Henry Overton. Anno 1643. Sep●. 16.   

THE anwer OF THE general Assembly To the Letter of some of their Reverend Brethren of the ministry in ENGLAND, sent by Mr. Marshall and Mr. nigh, to the said Assembly.  
Reverend and Beloved,  
WEe aclowledge with thankfulness to God, that this it one of the greatest blessings bestowed upon our kirk, and a pleasant fruit of our free Assemblies, that a way is opened for keeping Communion with our Sister Kirks abroad, and correspondence with you our dear Brethren, in whose joy and sorrow we have so near interest, and whose cause and condition wee desire to lay to heart as our own.  
All your former Letters were most acceptable and full of refreshment unto us, being taken as the earnest of a more full and constant fellowship longed after and hoped for. And this your last, although full of sadness and sorrow, yet accounted of us all most worthy of our tenderest affection and best respects, both for your cause who sent it, and for these worthy witnesses who did attest it: wherein as you have given unto us no small evidence ▪ not onely of your love, but also of trust and friendly respect, by choosing to poure out your grieved souls in our bosom; so wee shall wish and GOD willing endeavour, that you may really find some measure of brotherly compassion in our receiving thereof: For these your sad expressions of deep sorrow, being( as you give us to conceive) but a part of your complaint, and a lamentation less then the cause doth require, cannot but melt every heart, wherein there is any the least warmness of the love of Christ and his Saints. And what Child of the Bridegroom-Chamber can hear the voice of so many Friends of the Bridegroom, lamenting for the evils which have befallen Christs Bride in England, in the very night before the expected espousals, and not sit down and mourn with them; except his heart be fallen a sleep and frozen within him. The pitiful condition of your Church in England, is matter enough wee confess to move, yea to rend our bowels.  
If wee should weigh this your heavy grief in the scales of common reason, wee behoved either to stand aloft from your plangue, as men astonished, or sink down in heaviness, and bee swallowed up of Sorrow: But when wee ponder your sad condition in the balance of the sanctuary, wee find that nothing hath as yet befallen unto you, save that which hath been the exercise of the Saints in formertimes, who have been made to sit down for a while in the shadow of death before the day of their deliverance; Wee find nothing but that which may bee a fit preparation for a comfortable out gate from all your troubles. What if it was necessary in the wise dispensation of the Almighty GOD, that a People in great estimation for wisdom and power, such as the English, should bee thus far humbled as you declare, to the end that your deliverance may bee seen hereafter to bee of the Lord, and not of yourselves? What if the Lord would not draw back his hand from the winepress wherein you now do lie, until he should draw forth from you these pitiful expressions of your low Estate, and so provide for himself Witnesses against the day to come, that he may have the greater and purer glory in your salvations, and your gloriation may bee in the Lord alone?  
dear Brethren, comfort yourselves in the Lord, this sowing in tears doth promise a reaping in joy, and( who knows how soon) he will give to you who are mourners in Sion, beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that you may bee called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.  
Though weep●ng be in the evening of this begun Reform●tion and purgeing of the Lords House amongst you, yet in the morning, when the discovered filthiness and sweepings of the Temple shall bee orderly cast out, joy shall come with thanksgiving and praise: Though a fire be kindled in the Land, yet it is not to consume any of the Mettall for the Lord is sitting down as a refiner amongst you, and especially to purify the Sons of Levy, that he may have a more pure oblation of spiritual worship and service in all his holy Ordinances throughout all the Land: which is no token of wrath, but of loving kindness towards you.  
No wonder that satan doth thus rage as you relate foreseeing his casting out: No wonder he stir up all the Children of disobedience, and kindle their natural malice against the Children of God with the inspiration of hellish fury: No wonder the spirit of Antichrist be mad, when the morsel, half swallowed down, is like to be pulled out of his throat; The fat morsel of the rich Revenues of England: No wonder he be cruel against you the servants of Christ, who are consuming him by the breath of the Lords mouth. You do well to expect no mercy if Papists and Prelates prevail over you: Neither desire wee to deceive ourselves, in hopes to be free from what their power and malice can do against us: For they will not do to us, if they get the upper hand, as we have done, and must do, if God bring them low aagaine under us, as they were before: For wee and they are lead by the contrary Spirits of Christ and Anti-Christ.  
We have laboueed and must labour for their conversion, but they except in so far as God shall bridle them, will not rest without our destruction. For their fury against our persons is much more fiery then our zeal is fervent against their abominations: Let them follow the Spirit of lying and murdering wee must take us to our refuge, and join ourselves with all that are sensible of the danger of the reformed Religion, in prayer and supplication, The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of jacob is our refuge.  
Now for advice, what can wee say to you, who are upon your watch Tower? where is the spirit of wisdom and counsel? who lie as humble Disciples under the Lords feet, that did never forsake them that sought him. go on in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, against all opposition without, fear of whatsoever dangers, to purge the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches thereof, to set up all his Ordinances in their full beauty and perfection, to the uttermost of your power, according to the pattern of the Word of God, and zeal of the best reformed Kirks, and let these two kingdoms be knit together as one man in maintaining and promoving the truth of the gospel: Let us even enter in a perpetual Covenant for ourselves and posterity, to endeavour that all things may be done in the house of the Lord according to his own will, and let the Lord do with us, what seemeth good in his eyes; Onely wait upon the Lord, bee of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Let your hands be ever at your Masters work, and hold your faces resolutely to his Cause. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit yourselves like men, be strong, for you shall see the Salvation of the Lord, and your labour shall not bee in vain.  
Arch. johnson, clear. Eccles.   
FINIS.