The Last Battle of the Soul, Title page 1 – Religious tract 1
THE LAST BATTELL OF THE SOVLE IN DEATH, Diuided into eight cōferences.
1. Volume.
Whereby are showne the diuerse Skirmishes that are betweene the Soule of Man on his Death-bedde, and the Enemies of our Saluation.
Carefullie digested for the comfort of theSicke: By Mr. ZACHARIE BOYD▪ Preacher of Gods Word at Glasgow▪
IOB. 14. Vers. 14. All the dayes of mine appointed tyme will I … my changing come.
I liue to die▪ that I may die to liue.
Printed at Edinburgh, by the Heires of ANDRO HART▪ 1629▪
C. R.
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE
DONEC·PAX·REDDITA·TERRIS·
TO THE MOST SACRED AND Mightie Monarch CHARLES, King of Great BRITAINE, FRANCE & IRELAND, Defender of the FAITH.
MOST DREAD SOVERAIGNE, It was wisely said by the Royall Preacher, The memorie of the Iust is blessed:Prov. 1…. 7 But the name of the wicked shall rot: To hauehave a good name both in this life and after Death is a blessing promised vntounto the Righteous: But as for the vngod lie their names become mouldie and rotten: Qui injuste … om…tur just damnantur.
This consideration should rouse v… all men to the doing of that which is good but chieflie KINGS and PRINCES▪ whose liues are to bee seene in Chronicles by all ages, which come after: While other mens names within a little space are buried in obliuion, the Chronicles the Registers of times cry vntounto the World, Read and consider vvhat sort of men such and such hauehave beene.
Of Saul it is writter, that his sinne of rebellion in sparing Agag was a1 Sam. 15, 23.as the sinne of Witch-craft, & that his stubbornnesse was as idolatrie: His enuie against Dauid, & his consulting b1 Sam. 28 7with the Witch at Endor shall bee manifest to all Ages to come: Dauids c1 Sam, 13 14.Vertues and his Vices d2 Sam 11 8.are penned: Solomons e1 Kin. 3. 9vvisedome & his f1 Kin▪ 11 9folies, g1 Kin 12▪ 14.Rehobo…ms contemning of the olde counsellers h1 Kin. 16 2…A habs and i2 Kin. 16 ▪31A haz his wickednesse k2 Kin. 23 ….Iosiah and l2 …hr. 20, 3Iehoshaphats goodnesse shall bee to bee seene and reade so long as this world shall last.
*NoteOh, that Kings would consider how in a short life they may soone plot the euill which sh… staine …heir good name to the worlds end.
*NoteManie may Flatter a Prince while hee liueth: But so soone as hee is gone, Trueth which while hee liued was warded, then commeth out and plainelie declareth to the world whether hee was a wise man or a foole.
*NoteThere is no sinne so secret, but GodIoh. 1. 47. in his owne time shall bring it to light: If King CHARLES rule well, and bee truelie godlie like Nathanael without guile, An hundreth yeares after this Great BRITAINE shall blesse the Name of King CHARLES, yea, and that till God end Time in Eternitie.
* The seuen Stars of the Charles▪Waine are not so glorious as shall bee the seuen Letters of CHARLES in GODSReuel▪ 17. 18. Booke which is the Booke of Life.
Though your Maiesties Bodie after Death lye rotten in the Graue, yet shall your Royall Name as if it were perfumed & enbalmed, hauehave a most sweete sauour like these Garments wherein Iacob got his FathersGen. 27, 27, blessing the smell whereof was as the smel of a field which ye Lord had blessed.
Seeing there is nothing more powerfull to moue a man to liue well, than to remember that hee must die, and after comeGrego. Mors ipsa cum venerit vinci… tur si prius quam veniat semper timeatur. for to reckon with his God: For this cause hauehave I penned this Treatise of Sicknesse bringing vntounto death where your Maiestie may see the most fearfull Skirmishes, which are betweene the faithfull Soule & the enemies of our Saluation: For this cause hauehave I called it, THE LAST BATTELL OF THE SOVLE. Loe,Iob. 5. 27 this wee hauehave searched, so it is, heare it, and know it for your good.
Let it please your Maiestie to looke vponupon these my Workes with a fauourable eye and to take them into your Royall Protection: They were brought foorth in the Land of Your Birth, euen in your olde SCOTLAND, Whereof your Maiestie is now the hundreth and ninth King.
The particular place where this Booke was penned is your owne GLASGOWE, a Citie once greatlie beloued of great King IAMES your Maiesties Father of blessed memorie: * A Citie that looketh for the like fauour from your Royall MAIESTIE.
My chiefest spirituall desire is, that this may bee comfortable to sicke Soules: My first temporall wish is that your Maiestie would daine it with a blink of your Fauour: Let it obtaine your Royall Approbation, which shall bee to it as a Passe-port, which neither Pride nor Enuie shall bee able with Reason to reiect: If anie man be contentious, I heere appell vntounto Caesar.
Let mee bee so bolde as heere to aske a Petition from your Maiestie, which granted, I will atcount a sufficient recompence to all my Labours.
This is it, That it would please your Religious Maiestie to take a specall care that the prophanation of the Lords blessed and hallowed day bee remoued from this Land: It is come to such a custome and that chieflie betweene Edinburgh and Glasgow, that by no meanes the Church is able to refine it, except that by your Royall authoritie their Market dayes bee changed: *Note▪The abuse is so great that if your godlie Maiestie knew it, yee could not indure it: The keeping of this Precept is the onelie one which hath a memento before it, and yet it is most forgotten: It is the verie Key of Religion.
Let it please your Maiestie to consider what good Nehemiah did for the reformation of such an abuse.
I contended, said hee, with the NoblesNeh. 13. 17 of Iudah, and saide vntounto them, What euill thing is this that yee doe, and prophane the Sabbath day? Didvers. 18 not your Fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this euill vponupon vsus, & vpō this Citie? Yet yee bring more wrath vpō Israel by prophaning the Sabbath.
See what Nehemiah did.
It came to passe that when thevers, 19. gates of Ierusalem beganne to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should bee shut, and charged that they should not bee opened till after the Sabbath, And some of my Seruants set I at the gates, that there should no burden bee brought invers. 20. on the Sabbath day: So the Merchands and sellers of all kinde of ware, lodged without Ierusalem once or twise: Thenvers. 21. I testified against them, and said vntounto them, Why lodge yee about the wall: If yee doe so againe I will lay hands on you.
What wrought that?
From that time foorth came they no more on the Sabbath: Af…er he had done this good worke, hee looked vp to God by prayer saying, Remember mee,verse. 22 O my God concerning this also, and spare mee, according to the greatnesse of thy merciemercy.
I pray God that your Maiestie may reforme this great abuse with that good Nehemiah: *NoteIf this yee doe, I am assured that Your God shall remember You concerning it, and that hee shall spare You according to the greatnesse of his merciemercy.
One thing I desire earnestlie that your Maiestie once at least in the day would carefullie consider these weightie wordes of DAVID spoken vntounto SOLOMON: Thinke that King IAMES hath said them to King CHARLES: These1 Chr. 28. 9 Sicut potentes po… tenter t…r▪ menta patientur, sic & justi… pr… mijs fruentur plenius si recte exercue▪ rint potestatē. bee the words,
* And Thou CHARLES my Son know Thou the GOD of thy Father, and serue him with a perfect heart, and with a willing minde, for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and vnderstandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: If Thou seeke Him he will bee found of Thee, but if Thou forsake Him hee will cast Thee off for euer.
Now I intreat the Lord so to ingraffe these words into your Royall Heart, that the practise thereof may appeare in the outward swaying of your Scepter.
*NoteLet this little Manuell of the Last Battell of the Soule bee like a Page at your Maiesties Chamber-doore with his morning memento mori: Yee Kings are Gods because God hath so called you: I hauehavepsal. 28. 6. called you goddes, said God, but yee shall die like men: Crownes hauehave their compasse and Thrones hauehave their Tombes: Prince, People, great and small, all must goe to Golgotha for to make their beddes in that place which Iob calleth the SlimieIob. 21. 33 valley The French prouerbe is true.
La mort mord les Rois aussi. bien que les conducteurs des charrois.
So most humblie intreating the most high to grant to your Maiestie to reigne both well and long ouer vsus, I remiane
Your Majesties most humble most obedient Seruant and Subject both borne & sworne M. Zacharie Boyd. Preacher of Gods word at Glasgow
Ad Carolum Regem.
Maxime magnorum longo sate sanguine Regum.
Accipe nunc tenues quos fert tua Scotia fructus:
Et si arbusta juvant fragiles ne temne myricas.
Another.
This Life O Prince is like an raging Sea,
Where froathy mounts are heaued vp on hie:
Our painted Ioys in blinks that are ful warme
Are like Raine-bowes forerunners of a storme:
All flesh with griefe is prickt within without.
Crownes carie cares and compasse them about.
Your State is great, your place is high: What then?
God calls you gods, but ye shall die like men.
Your Majesties most humble and most obedient Subject & Seruant, M. Z. B.
TEMPVS
A LA RYÖNE,
MADAME,
DIEV par lagrace duquel les Rois reignent, vous a esté favorable: Il vous a fait naistre de plus Grand pere qui ait onques reigné en la FRANCE voire de ce Grand HENRY vn vray fouldre de guerre: Il vous aussi a fait estre la belle fille de plus sage Prince qui ait onques reigné en la Grand BRETAGNE, lequel ponuoit bien estre nommé IA QVES LE SAGE.
Le Roy nostre Sire estant fils de plus SAGE, & vous estant la fille d'vn PRINCE si courageux, nous faites esperer que quand il plaira a dieu de vous donner des enfans, ils seront & sages & valeureux: Ce que la nature ne peut pas, dieu le face par sa grace.
Receuez d'vn bon oeil MADAME ceBonne la mort qui donne la vie. petit oeuure: Vous y av…z LADERNIERE BATAILLE de l'ame contre tous les enemis de nostre salut: vous y verrez comment il se faut porter en telles rencontres: pensez a ces choses es iours de vostre ieunesse: C'est le Conseil d'vn ROY Aye Souuenance, dit il,Eccles. 12. 3. de ton Createur es iours de ta ieunesse, auant que les iours mauuais vienent, & que les ans arriuent des quels tu dies, i… n'y pren point plaisir: L…s ROYS & ROYNES Sont mortels comme lesIsa. 40, 6. autres: La voix dit Crie & on a respondu que crieray ie? Toute chair est comme l'herbe & toute sagrace est comme la fleur vers. 7.d'vn champ: L'herbe est sechee, & la fleur est cheute d'autant que le vent de l'Eternel a soufflé dessus: Solomon qui cognoissoit les femn es mieux qú aucun autre, nous monstre que ce n'est pasProu. 31. 30 la plus belle qui Soit digne de louange: La grace trompe dit il, & la beauté Beauté sans bonté est comme vin e s… enté.S'esuanouit: mais la femme qui craint l'Eternel ce sera celle qui Sera louee: Cest'est la fille du ROY toute pleine de gloire en dedans: Dieu de sa grace vousPsal. 45. 14 face telle. Ie supplie treshumblement vostre Maiesté vouloir prendre en bon ne part ce petit oeuure; lequel ie vous dedie comme vn tesmoignage d'vn coeur affectioné enuers vostre Maiesté: Cependant ie prie le Tout puissant qu il vous augmente de iour en iour ses graces spirituelles, & vous face la mere des enfans▪ qui soyent Roys apres vous tant que le soleil durera. C'est celuy qui demeurera toute sa vie
MADAME. Vostre tres-humble, & tres-obeissant Seruiteur & Subiect. M. Zacharie Boyd. A Glasgove le 6. de May. 1629.
A LA ROYNE.
Fille de France de Royale race,
Perle de prix dieu vous face grace:
DIEV le vuelle que ceste nation
Sans fin vous louelove en benediction:
Portezl' absence & de pere & mere,
Car pour eux mariage prospere
Voux produira bonne succession
* Si vous reuerez La RELIGION.
M. Z. B.
To the READER.
AFter sixteene yeares absēce into France where it pleased God to mak me a preacher of his word the space of foure yeares: It pleased the same LORD to visite his Church there with bloodie warres, whereby manie Churches and mine also were discipated by this occasion it was the Lords will to bring me backe to my natiue Countrie.
In that troublous time I remained a space a priuate man at Edinburgh with Doctor Sibbald the glory & honour of al the Physicians of our Land: But againe within a short space I was sought out by that most worthie Man our Scots Onesiphorus euen Sir William Scot of Eli: Hee sought mee out diligentlie and found mee: The Lord giuegive merciemercy vntounto his House, for hee most louing lie refreshed mee, and was not ashamed of mine affliction: The Lord grant vntounto2 Tim. 1. 8 him that hee may finde merciemercy of the Lord in that day.
After my remouing from him vntounto this Citie, it pleased the Lord to visite mee with sore sicknesse, yea, so that in September Anno. 1626. I wasphi. 2. 27. like Epaphroditus sicke nigh vntounto death: For when I arose out of that I euer I found in my studie my winding sheete among my Bookes: This gaue mee occasion painefullie to search & describe vntounto the world this Last Battell of the August. Nescis qu… hora … et mors: S…mper vigila vt quod nescis quando veniet, paratum te inveniat quum ve… nerit: Ad hoc forte nescis quando veniet, vt semper parat…s sis.Soule: I pray God to make it profitable for thine vse, if thou reape a…e comfort thereby, I intreate thee to pray for mee, that the lord would grant vntounto mee that I may finde merciemercy of the Lord in that day.
As for escapes in printing they are marked at the end of the Booke: Excuse them in thy fauour because I remaine farre from the …resse.
Vox morientis ad animam suam.
O anima mea egredere; quid dubitas? Egredere; quid times? His multis annis Christo Domino servisti, & ad huc mortem timebis?
O anima insignita Dei imagine, decorata similitudine, desponsata in fide, dotata in spiritu, redempta sanguine, deputata cum Angelis, capax beatitudinis, haeres bonitatis, rationis particeps, quid tibi cum carne, qua haud aliud vilius sterquilinium invenisti?
Augustin.
Vita haec misera est, mors incerta; si subito obrepat quo hinc exibimus? Et ubi nobis discenda sunt quae hic negleximus? Annon potius hujus negligentiae supplicia luenda sunt?
TEMPVS
IN OPVS CVM VIventibus tum Morientibus vtilissimum A. D. ZACHARIA BODIO Glasguensis Ecclesiae Pastore adornatum.
AD LECTOREM. Epigramma.
FOElix qui sancte potuit traducere vitam,
Et tandem extremum Sanctè obijsse diem▪
Haec duo qui didicisse cupis, tibi pandit vtrumque
Hic Liber, hunc animo volue revolue tuo.
Ad Authorem Libri. distichon ejusdem.
Qui calamo qui voce doces, vitaque perennè▪
Vivore, in aeternum vivito ZACHARIA.
IOHANNES BELVS Glasguensis Ecclesiae Pastor & Academiae RECTOR.
AD VIRVM PIETATE Et eruditione praestantem D. ZACHARIAM BODIVM GLASGVENSIS Ecclesiae Pastorem de praeparatione ad mortem, postquam ex deplorato morbo convaluisset Scribentem.
ERGO te nuper mortis de faucibus atrae
Ereptum nobis reddidit Omnipotens:
Vt Doctus moriendi artem expertusque doceres,
Qua datur aetheream transitus adpatriam:
Qui bene vivendi toties praecepta dedisti
Doctrinae reserans horrea plena sacrae.
Foelix Zacharia Doctor; Sanctisima cuius
Vox pariter, Scripta, & consona vita docent
IOHANNES STRANGIVS S. S. Theologiae. D. & Accademiae Glasguensis Praefectus.
IN DIVINA INTEGERrimi viri D. ZACHARIAE BODII Ecclesiastae non è multis meditamenta. cum è desperatâ valetudine ad pristinam salutem revalu…rat.
FRustra veternum sollicitas meum
Bodi Thaliae ad munta; barbitos
Obmutet, exurdante nostras
Voce Scholae str…perâ Camoenas.
Iam colligendas sarcinulas monet
Quae vulsit aurem Mors modo pallida:
Laureta Cyrrhae, Musicasque
Thespiadum fugito choreas.
Tu perge Homeri carminis alite
Laudande quò te mens ammi vocat,
Qui baccare, & lauro revinctos
Castalio lavis amne crines.
Fatalis ex quo crudâ Hecates manu
Attonsa pene est caesaries tibi
Fato superstes reditusque
Incolumis, renovas duellum.
De morte partam appendis adoream,
Vtque Hydra secto corpore fortior
Crevit, revîxti ter triumpho
Clarior, & spolijs opimis.
Qualis Caystri fluminis accola
Morti propinquus dulciter incinit.
Melos supremum, talis ista
Naenia, quâ superos remulces.
Macte indole istâ, macte faventiâ,
Excude fructus uberis ingenî.
O aureum vere libellum
Melle sacro, & sale temperatum.
Hoc amoris ergò scribebat Io. Rayus ludi publici litterarii Móderator Edinburgi