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. III.

Treats of the perpetuation of Families, as more the desire of brave men then their attainment; and hereupon ex∣horts submission to Gods pleasure.

WHen men therefore propose to themselves, by Gods permission, to be founders of Families, they doe, as provident builders doe, design models and lay in materials before they declare

what they will build; for according to their well advised scheme and orderly draught, and the proper Instruments thereto, so usually are the advances in, and the conclusions of it. He that will not consider in his mind the money he would expend upon the conveniences he would have in, the time he would allow to, the perfections of his Pile, will never be a wise and thrifty builder; nor will he in resolves of illustration to a family, be more happy, who considers not well and acts wisely, and perseveres in his well-grounded design constantly, to the effection of it; and this if he does, and is humble and civil in it, he performs as much as man can doe to serve him∣self to compleatness, and does by the very ambition to do generous things, de∣clare himself of natures Peerage and Nobility; so true is that of Menander, A Vertuous man, though to his Mother He A Black have, yet is oth' Nobility.

This desire of continuing and propa∣gating their Families the Romans of all Nations were more remarkable for, who, as they knew learning, valour, and imployments of gain, gathered estates, and by thrift in, and knowledge to get, disciplin'd men in the tenacious keeping,

and the provident actuating of them; so bred their youth to those frugal and masculine courses, that as they despised vice and avoyded the costly expences of them, so did they preserve their an∣cestors renown in its freshness and fra∣grancy by their patrization; and where the contrary was, their publique lawes restrained the wast of patrimonies, and infamiz'd their degeneration; which prudent caution and sage provision for a worldly perennation, though it had not ever infallible influence upon the end aymed at (the good pleasure of God, being often not only negative of, but opposites to, such projects) yet was it a prudent assay to a probable and rationall attainment of perpetuity, or if not such in the propriety of the bles∣sing (which may be thought inconsistent with this world, and with the men and things of and in it; yet secundum quid, and in compare with courses diametral to frugality and the benedictions of in∣dustrious deligence, the principles of growth, and beauty of Families; it pro∣mises much towards its establishment, at least more then the sensual and sense∣less courses of prodigality and loose li∣ving, which are not springs to, but dreyns

of estates, and let them run at wast by intemperance and neglect.

I know the activity and concerns of the Romans in the severalties of their conquests, dispersing those of them that were strenuous and learned into the several quarters of it, made the gene∣rosity of their spirits at home not seem so much and quick as it would, had they been kept nearer their heart, and seat of life, and not distributed into the remote veins and arteries of their growing body, which they were to inform and quicken: Yet did they in their transplantation not dye, but by their change of climate more improve. For since it is the good pleasure of God, that the Ague of time should, by varia∣tions, serve to the revolution of this vicissitudinary world; in which all the Natives, of what edition soever, are by their principle of composition, and the regency of Gods Decree, inclined to change, and not without miracle to be preserved from the fate of their declen∣tion and variation, which is but the gra∣dual preface to their interition. They that ••ix Absolom's Pillar on this Pedestal of dust, do but fancy their own deceit, and consent to their posterities delu∣sion:

For though it may please God that some Families are so happy, that they pro∣duce as many Heroicks as men, every one born in it, proving, not only not a blemish, but an Ornament, companion to the Nobles, and best of men; in whom nothing trite, or prostrate, appears, but every thing that proves a spring to the emulation of their contemporaries, as the Decian Family is remembred to have, which lasted for hun∣dreds of years unallayed, and in its prime and encreasing keenness, so that to be of it was to be, whatever is expectable from man∣hood incarnate.

Or as the Domitian Family, of whom Paterculus writes, all of them either ar∣rived at Consular, Sacerdotal, or Trium∣phal Grandeur: Or the Brethren of Me∣tellus, who triumphed in one and the same day. I know there have been these Instances of auspicious providence to some, who, with Corellius Rufus, have had felicities of all kinds constellated in them, and have had the issue of their prosperity imponderated by the massi∣ness of their own wishes; yea, by those

concentrated accommodations which have advanced them above parallel, and declared them single in those, not al∣most to be believed, enjoyments: To have a clear reputation, and great pow∣er, Wife, Daughter, Sons, Nephews, du∣tiful and virtuous, a number of choice Friends, and all this with a chast and unviciated Conscience, is, that which but few Romans besides him had: Nor of many English men can that be said, which our Learned Cambden writes of the Earl of Wiltshire, Treasurer to King Edward the sixth, who well understood the different times he lived in, and was to steer his course by: That he was rai∣sed, not suddenly, but by degrees, in Court; that he built Noble and Princely Buildings; was temperate in all other things, full of years, for he lived ninety seven years, fruitful in his generation, for he saw one hundred and three issue from him by his Wife: I say, though God leave these Instances, and such like, to as∣sert, and make good, the imperativeness and priviledge of his pleasure, yet most∣ly it is otherwise: Statues do not more gather moss, and moulder away with weather, nor Vegetables fade and dye by the currency of their season, and the

aridness of their root, the decay of whose succulency appears in the contra∣ction and cessation of the Flowre, then Men and Families do by Time, which has swept away with its Besome, and car∣ried down its Current, Kingly, Peery, and Gentry Families, and set them and their Honours on shore in that Terra incognita, wherein they are extinguisht. Yea, in our own Nation, how has the same Ca∣rere and fate mortified the quondam be∣ing and greatness of Name in the Brit∣tish and Saxon Families; yea, and in the Families from the Conquest, by name, Albanay, Fitz-Hugh, Mountacute, Mount∣ford, Beauchampt, Brewier, Cameis, Bar∣dolf, Mortimer, Valtort, Botereaux, Chau∣mond, Curcey, De la Beche, Carminow, Brewire, Fitz-lewis, Marmion, Deincourt, Burnell, Plantagenet, all right Noble and Knightly Families in their times, but now either wholly eraced, or couched under Families, who married their Heirs, and, with their Lands and Blood, carry their Names only in their Title: I say, this Vulture, and vehemence, in time, tells us, that as here there is no Per∣manency, so here good & brave Men must expect rather to be deplorable objects of desertion and poverty, then the Fa∣vourites

of credit and abundance; nor do I observe the lines of life crosser, or the channels of prosperity lower, to any then to these: Envy, or some other mis∣chievous accident, either calmming their design so that they can make no Port be∣fore they are ruined; or else the surges of the storms, in which they and their honest projects ride, suffering them never to be happier, then a shipwrack of all can make them; and the breaking of their hearts for greif superadded, can by it detriment the world in their loss. This I the rather introduce, to turn Men and my self upon rumination of Gods pro∣ceedings herein, more abstruse then the nature of unmortified man is capable to submit to, or patient to acquiesce in: Nor is there anything, that I know, wherein the carnal Heart, and inquisitive Wit, more covets to fathom, and concerns it self to circumvolve, then Gods wrap∣ping of himself up in the Cloud, execu∣ting the pleasure of his Will in this, which our dwarfy reason, and insolent igno∣rance, tearms, with reverence I write it, the hysteron proteron of divine Soveraign∣ty, which, by what we call an inconse∣quence of cause and effect, ratifies his great Authority, and ineffable Wisdom,

Whose Iudgments are past searching, and his wayes not to be found out; because it is a way in the sea, and a path in the great water, whose footsteps are not known.

How this notwithstanding has per∣plexed holy and wise men, appears in that of Iob cap. 12. who stumbled, That the Tabernacles of the wicked pro∣sper, and they that provoke God are secure, into whose hand God bringeth abundantly. And of Ieremy c. 12. v. 1. Let me reason with thee of thy Iudgments; wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? where∣fore are all they happy that are very trea∣cherous? And Lam. 1. 5. speaking of the Church, complains, her enemies pro∣sper, her adversaries are the chief, for the Lord hath afflicted her. O this prosperity of the wicked, is, that which makes Da∣vid, a man of a good nature, and a grave sincerity, cry out, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed mine hands in inno∣cency, Psal. 73. 13. and tempts them (un∣less better kept by his Grace, and less leaning to their own understanding, and less swayed by natural reason) to think there is either no knowledge in the most High, v. 11. Or, that though a sinner do evill a hundred times, his dayes may be pro∣longed, Eccless. 8. 12. This slow progress

of God, to judge evil men in the punish∣ment of their evil actions, makes, as evil men set themselves fully to do evil v. 11. so good men almost put forth their hands to iniquity, Psal. 25. 3.

Indeed, I confess, according to the seruples and narrow calculates of depra∣ved reason, and the vilde objects of our carnal senses, dijudicating these transposi∣tions and seeming confusions of admini∣stration, there should none of this be, but as no ill thing should fall out to good, so no good befal evil men; because, ac∣cording to the Syntax of cause and ef∣fect, and the compossibility of a good effect from a good venture well made and marketted, there should be a Ho∣mogeneousness in the return. But when, as often it is otherwise, and that not on∣ly in punishment of some adjunct evil to the best good in us, and so on the con∣trary; but also in right to Gods inde∣pendency, and plenipotency, vindicated thereby, it proves otherwise, there ought to be in us no repining against, or aversion from, the Love of, and Du∣ty unto, God, who does, with the Crea∣tion, his Clay, what the power and will of him the Potter pleaseth, who in all the emanations of his Attributes both

penal and premiary, evidences himself not more a God of power and wisdom, then a Father of mercy and goodness. For in that the wisdom, power, goodness, holiness and fidelity of God are concerned to effect the glory of the Divinity, in the preserva∣tion of the prerogatives of its Crown and dignity, & in the accommodation of its sub∣jects with all things necessary to their being and wel-being. That which occurs to them in their passage from the one state unto the other, must needs be accepted by them as replete with all those energyes and intents of advantage, which are efflu∣xable from those forementioned divine Excellencies, as Gods purpose concerning them, and the grounds of their subjection and relyance on him. And thereupon it follows that to recalcitrate those befalls, as they are consequences of superne good∣ness and greatness, is, to kick against the pricks, and to desie the prescriptions and superemin••ncy of God.

Which lessons men to abate deplo∣ration of their personal or Family mis∣fortunes, because though the instru∣ments that unwelcomely adjuvate their infelicity be from themselves, yet the chief causality is in that regency which is its own both regulation and sup∣port.

And if there be not a hayr of our heads but is numbred, Matth. 10. 30. Or a Sparrow fall to the ground without the goodwill of our Father, as our Lord has assured us, in the aforesaid Scrip∣ture, then we ought to possess our souls in patience, Luke 21. 19. and to rea∣son our repinings out of credit with us, as Iob did, Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and not euil? Iob 2. 10. Especially when the living man that com∣plains suffers for his sin. For God being of infinite wisdom and power, as he designs nothing but what is good, so he admits no good into the rank of his effective purpose, but what he knows ought, and wills shall come to pass, and that in the very nicety and seemingly minute circum∣stance of its appearing and opperation, ei∣ther as to time, degree, persons, issue, or whatever else is considerable in it. For there being in him an Omniformity and comprehensivity of knowledge, by which he, after a manner superiour to our appre∣hension and way of intellect, reaches all things by his simple and plenary intuition; the associate perfections in him being of equal lustre and unparaleldness, second the knowledge of God, and serve it out in providence and order of action which

as validly produces, as his knowledge and wisdom contrives it. And hence it comes to pass, that the will of God working on ou•• wills to a cooperation, works good in us, and thence works good by us; and then rewards his own encouragements to goodness by bounteous largesses of ac∣ceptance from us.

Thus come men to be Wise, Learned, Temperate, Just, Fortunate, Honourable, not from the innate excellencies of their mind, or from the better temper of their constitution; and the stellary influences propitious to their births, (Though I am far from denying natures operation in any de∣gree that is within her sphere, and Gods per∣mission, which whether this be or be not, I un∣dertake not to state) but from the emana∣tion of Gods power, goodness, and wis∣dom, imparted to, and mixed with, their actions, in the regularity and aptitude whereof, the characters of their merit and fame are impressed and fortunated; yea, so does God sweetly Soveraign it in the wills of men, that he not only leads their wills of action beyond their wills of deli∣beration, and resolve, so that they shall not do the evil they intended, but in his method occasions their wills to will his production of good, in the way and de∣gree

of his establishment, which they in∣tended not. Thus the peevishness of La∣ban occasioned the prosperity of Iacob, and the treachery of Iosephs brethren, Iosephs advancement; the rancour of Saul, Davids rise; the revenge of Balack against Israel, Balaams blessing of them; and in a thousand other examples, wherein it might be made good. Which supposed, and written of (not I hope without the modesty that becomes a learner, the rea∣son that beseems a man, the piety that ought to be in a good Christian,) there may be some good advance made towards the discovery of the distentions and con∣vulsions of Families, Fortunes, and Men, in the various conditions and enterludes of their being: For though (as to us) things may ••all out, as I said before, in a seeming retrogradation (and under wise manageries, and in the times of good men, unhappily; and under worse times and men more prosperously) yet is not this event of dissimilarity directed by a blind fate, or a chance of mischance, as we call things of spurious causation; but it is the very proper expression of God, conducting second causes to the subservi∣ency they must not dispute or say nay to; but by a positivity of observance and

compliance be disposed by, and concluded in, For it is the blessing of the Lord makes rich; and it is his pleasure, that as the same Sunne melteth the Wax and hardens the Clay, so the same power of his should become variously effective to men and things; which lets us into the reason, How Men and Families are by a secret sourse or sluce, either made affluent, or dreyned of whatever is notable in them.

Notes

• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Apud Stobaeum Serm. 218.
• Orta omnia aut serius aut ocyus tandem occident & senescunt, volvet motu continuo rotans fortuna, & de gente ingentium volubilia regn•• versabit: Facies illa cum volet reges ex servis, servos, ex regi∣bus, & in urbem Romam, & in orbem Roma∣nam suam in∣eluctibilem po∣teutiam exerce∣bit. Petrarcha Ep. 4. sine Ti∣t lo Tom. 2. p. 714.
• Qui tot annis continuus simul splende•• clari∣tate virtutis, & quamvis rara si•• gloria, non agnoscitur in tam longo stem∣mate variata se∣culis suis produ∣cit nobilis vena primarios, ne∣scit inde ali∣quid nasci me∣diocre. Tot pro∣ba••ii quot ge∣niti & quod dissicile provenit electa frequentius, ita ut quod addidit familiae ju∣venes, tot reddidit curiae consulares. Theodoric. Rex Ep. 6. Importuno, apud Cassiod Var. lib. 3.
• Omnes ad con∣sulatum sacer∣dotiaque ad tri∣umphantium paoene omnes per∣venerunt insig∣nia Pater. lib. 2. p 438. & 440. Plurimas vi∣vendi causas ha∣bentem. Plin. de Correll••o Rufo.
• Britannia, p. 267.
• Psalm 77. 19.
• In quolibet con∣tinuo indubi∣tanter sunt par∣tes insini••ae & sic providet & c••ravit creat••r, ut esset totum, sic providet et curavit ut esset medietas & eodem modo se habet de medi∣etate medietatis & ita in infini∣tunt qui enim providit & curat, ut sit d••∣mus, providet & cur••t ut sit paries, & etiam ut sil l••pis in pariete. Gulielm. Pari. siens. primae partis de uni∣verso parte. 3. c. 2. & 3. p. 713.
• 3 Lam. 39.