The gentlemans monitor, or, A sober inspection into the vertues, vices, and ordinary means of the rise and decay of men and families with the authors apology and application to the nobles and gentry of England seasonable for these times / by Edw. Waterhous[e] ...

SECT. XX.

Treats of Gods blast upon the Endea∣vours and Atchievements of Men, the unavoydable Eclipse, and irreparable Diminution of their Families.

EIghtly, the eighth and last, but not the least means of the ruine and decay of Families, is, Gods blast upon the Vertues, Endeavours, and successions of a Family. For this is the storm in which no vessell of humane art, no cable of secular con∣texture, no project of worldly hold, can availe; not only because it is anticipa∣tive of all wisdom and prevention: As appeared in Caesar, who refused the coun∣sel of Pansas, and Hirtius, to be wary and

strict in government, and who despised the predictions of the Astrologers, the lesson of his Calphurnian dream; and laid aside the papers given him in detection of the conspiracy against him. So fell it out to Archias of Thebes, Charles the last Duke of Burgundy, and the Duke of Guise, and in that great Duke of Buckingham's death by Felton that Villain, against which Fate he was fore-warned by the Lord Goring, by an old woman in the way, by Sir Ni∣cholas Throgmorton, by the mis-givings of his own thoughts: yet he (Generous soul as he was) despised all, being made con∣fident by his courage and resolution; the force of fate being ineluctable: For when it should endeavour avoydance, it suborns prudence to incredulity, or ground∣less resolution, whereby it works its end. Whereby not only is Gods purpose aver∣sive to mens prudence, but positively con∣clusive of what shall befall them, in eve∣ry circumstance of it. For though Mau∣ritius the Emperour foresee in his Dream, that Phocas shall ruin him and knows what he ought wisely to do to prevent it, yet all in vain. And therefore if God blast, who can bless? what shall succeed without or against him? Not devout prayers, not excessive humblings, not

rich gifts, not potent friends, not perso∣nal worth, not the love of living, nor the legacies of dying friends, can stop the leak of a Families Immersion: Nay, if any family were so happy to have the cream of mankind in it, were it the Nest of all the Eagles, Nightingals, Unicorns, Phoenixes, (as I may so say) of man-kind; were Cicero, Hortensius, Crassus, Cato, Sulpitius, Brutus, Calidius, Calvus, Caesar, Corvinus, Pollio Asinius, Varro, and the rest, whom Pe∣trarch calls, Ingenia eminentia: Were these, added to by all the later Heroiques, of one family and confederacy, yet would they be Physicians of no value, to reco∣ver that family from Gods blast. As when God blesses, every thing contributes its service, so do things equally minister to his curse: Not Babels Walls strength, or its Towers heighth, nor Senacheribs army, not Herods. Oratory, not Iulians craft; not Prior Boltons Hermitage on the top of Harrow-Hill, will avail; they are all as weak subterfuges, as miserable comforters: The best ingenuity and artisice of secu∣rity and augmentation, is to pray ayd of God, and to beseech his presence with men, in their spirits by grace, in their actions by prudence, in their designs by success, in their correspondence with men

by fidelity and favour, which when con∣ducted by him, who is the Intellects foun∣tain, the hearts steer, the tongues conduct, the foots guide, the friends motive, the foes disappointment; when, I say, he who is, and there is none besides him, becomes mens in the effects of his power and good∣ness to them, then the springs of second causes flow freely, the winds and waves of opposition become calm and still. Thus good men in all ages have had their ends upon the World; though it hath set it self against them, and execised all cruelty to them: Witness the Primitive Martyr∣doms, in which though the bodies of holy men were trucidated, and their credits and fortunes plundered from them by the malice of the Gospels adversaries; yet, maugre all their vehemence, whose interest it was to make the credit of Chri∣stianity creditless, and the professors of persecuted Truth, vile; yet those dry bones invigorated, and those rams horns bore down the walls of their Iericho, be∣cause God was in the cause, and in the Champions that suffered for it, who is re∣solved to abet his Justice and Authority, against the malice and Tyranny of the World; the perduration of which, and its carriage in a way of conviction and

efficacy, against the high-flown resoluti∣on of & subtil undermining, that the Eth∣niques ages discovered towards it. The result of which, is directive to men, in the fortunation and felicitous conduct of their actions, in any kind whatever. If men would not have the Watchman watch in vain, Psal. 127. 1. Nor, the labourer earn Wages, to put it in a bag with holes, Hag∣gai 1. 6. If men would live long, and see good daies, Psalm 34. 12. 1 Pet. 3. 10. If they would see their childrens children, to many Generations, and those wise and wealthy; there is no other nor better way to accomplish these attainments, then to comprecate Gods ayd and blessing. This is to be wise with a witness, with the wit∣ness of all wise men, and all wise ages: And without this, Achitophels policy be∣comes folly, and Iulians zeal for Ethni∣cism the price of that Arrow which vin∣dictively wounded him, and let out with his life the rancour of his Apostasie; yea, when men contrive a project without, and in desiance of God; it is just, the sequel of that insolence should be shame and sub∣version. Never any standard was set up a∣gainst God, but lost it self, and all that adhered to it. And therefore, O ye No∣bles and Gentry, whose the Generous and

Divine aym is to preserve and enlarge your Families; desist your other prudences in comparison of this Master-piece, which miscarries not; set your faces towards God, seek his cooperation with, and bene∣diction upon you. Be not faithless, but believe; for God to unhorse the confi∣dence of man, and to spoyl the trust in Princes, often despised the day of great, & advanced the day of small things; that is, he hath made Austrian greatness to stoop to Copper Kings; his little and con∣temned appearances to prevail against all formidable oppositions; for he looks not to the goodly Eliabs of our out-sides; nor is taken with the Micholls of our trans∣port, but he looks upon his own Image, and at his own glory, and according to the Instrumentality of them to those ends, so he furthers or impedes them. Hence is it that dangers formidable, like Spanish Armadoes and Invasions, he changes into Morris Dances upon the Waves of dislustre, and makes the very Engineers of them to confess, that Vertues, though they are within the chance, yet they are not ever within the power of ill Fortune: and good things that we promise fixed upon us, retreat and die useless to us. Yea, in Families, b••cause men look usually upon the prodigiousest

wit, or the beauteousest person, or the valiantest Spark of mens packs, for the hopes of the house, as if the day of victory, and the field of greatness, were to be a present to his merit, and to be wonne by him; therefore God jealous of his glory, in mens lavishing attributions to it, while they luxuriate to such Idols, of their own institution, either removes by death, or disappoints by accident, the prevalency of such their hope, and puts a period to their felicity then, when they thought it most advanceable. This has bin so, this will be so; and that to put the questi¦on of Gods Paramontship out of question, & to confirm the certainty of no certainty in any prop or reserve without him; and to undeceive us of that distrust and under∣valuation of weak and worthless things, adjuvated by him; since how contemp∣tible soever instruments in disjunction from him are, yet in conjunction with him, and subserviency to him, they are mighty and regent. Which truth hard∣ly assented to by the Idolaters of sense, and the magnifiers of success, outstands all the violencies and attaques of this worlds artillery; and by God concurring it, makes good its ground against world∣ly cavil, and incredulity; for God sorsakes

not his confidents, nor do they receive a bafflle, or defeat, whose help and hope he is, For they that fear ths Lord shall renew their strength as the Eagle, they shall runne and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint, Esay 40. last. That is, God will give them blessings extraordinary, and lofty, above the usual sore of blessings, and blessings durable and unlanguishing, blessings that shall outweigh sonnes and daughters; hee'l give them so much of these lower springs as shall keep their names sweet, and give them all they can receive of the glory and satisfaction of his intuition and fruition. For such ho∣nour have all his Saints. Which con∣cludes what I have to write upon the generall causes and means of the Rise, Progress and decay of Men and Families, as they are prudently, and without of∣fence to particulars, to be taken notice of by us.

Notes

• Sir H. Wottons character, D. p. 106, 107, 114, 116. Ineluctabilis fatorum vis cujus cum for∣tunam mutare constituit con∣silia corrumpit. Paterculus lib. 2. p. 48. edit. Lipfii.
• Lib. 2. p. 307.
• 16 H. 8. Ho∣linshed, p. 882▪
• Gatakerus in Antonino com∣mentar, p. 386, 387.
• Gatakerus in Annotat. ad M. Antonium p. 235.
• The Emperour so called the King of Swe∣den.
• Sir H. Wotton, p. 23.
• & p. 97.
• Saepe Deorum permissa hono∣rati ora sunt ossa pauperis philosophi qui vitam duri••er egit quam prin∣citi qui delica∣us••ime vixeta, Antonin. Ep. ad Egesippum.
• Sicut qui deum audit non est surdus, fic quem deus audit non est mutus. Pe∣trarch. lib 2. de rem utr. Fort. Dial. 103.