John Trapp on Proverbs 11:14

Verſ. 14. Where no counſel is, the people fall] As where no Pilot is, the ſhip miſcarrieth. The Vulgar renders it, Ubi non eſt gubernator, corruit populus. Tyranny is better than Anarchy: And yet, Woe alſo to thee O Land, whoſe King is a childe, that is, wilful, and uncounſellable, as Rehoboam, who was a childe at forty years old; when as his Father was a man at twelve. Age is no juſt meaſure of wiſdome; and royalty without wiſdome is but eminent diſhonour. Solomon the wiſe choſe him an excellent Council of ſtate, whom Rehoboam refuſed to hear, being as much more wilful than his Father, as leſſe wiſe; all head,Turk. Hiſt. Keckerm. Politic. Ulyſſes interrogat quaie regnum eſſet Cyclopicum? reſponde[illegible: 1 letter] Silenus, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. no heart, loſing thoſe ten tribes with a churliſh breath, and returning to Jeruſalem lighter by a Crown than hee went forth. Hee and his green-headed Council was like Acribiades and his Army, where all would be Leaders, none Learners. Or it may bee it was now in Iſrael, as once it was in Perſia (and as now it is in Turkey, when the Great Turk ſtands at the dangerous door) where if any Counſellor delivered any thing contrary to the Kings mind, flagris caedebatur, hee was chaſtiſed with Rods: Or as in Regno Cyclopico ubi [non-Latin text not transcribed], where no man cared for better counſel, but each one did what was good in his own eyes. Such cannot long ſubſiſt.

But in the multitude of Counſellors] So they bee good Counſellours; better than Balaam was, better than Achitophel, better than thoſe of Aurelius, Tertul. Apol. by whom the good Emperour was even bought and ſold. One ſpecial thing the Primitive Chriſtians prayed for the Emperour, was, that God would ſend him Senatum fidelem, a faithful Council. There were in Joſiah's dayes horrible abominations: And why? The Princes were as roaring Lions, the Judges Wolves, &c. Zeph. 3.3. Queen Elizabeth was happy in her Council (by whom ſhee was moſt-what ruled) and grew amiable to her friends, and formidable to her enemies both at home and abroad. Wiſdome is better than ſtrength, ſaith Salomon; And, Romani ſedendo vin[illegible: 1 letter]unt, ſaid they of old.Pol[illegible: 1 letter]b. The welfare of a State is procured and preſerved, not ſo much by a multitude of worthy Warriours, as of wiſe Counſellours; as Cleon in Thucydides long ſince obſerved, Thucyd. lib. 3. and as we have bleſſedly found in this preſent Parliamentum benedictum, more truly ſo ſtiled, than that was in the 25. of Edward the third.