So that if the Part of the People or State be fomewhat in the Election, you cannot make them Cyphers in the Privation or Translation. ment upon a 4. If it be faid that this is a dangerous Opinion for the Pope, Emperor, The Judg and elective Kings; true, 'tis a dangerous, and ought to be a dangerous war to be Opinion, to fuch perfonal Popes, Emperors, or elective Kings, as fhall clear. transcend their Limits, and become tyrannical: but it is a fafe and found Opinion for their Sees, Empires, and Kingdoms; and for themselves also, if they be wife: For a Plenitude of Power is a Plenitude of Commotion But the chief Reason why I do not fearch into this Point is, because I need it not. And in handling the Right of a War, I am unwilling to intermix doubtful Matter with that which is out of doubt. For as in capital Causes, where but one Man's Life is in queftion, the Evidence ought to be clear; fo much the more in a Judgment upon a War, which is capital to thousands. I fuppofe therefore the worft; that the offenfive War upon Bohemia had been unjust; and then put the Cafe: which is no fooner put than refolved; if not enwrapped, but ftated plainly and perfpicuously. 5. 'Tis this. An offenfive War is made, which is unjuft in the Aggreffor; The Cafe ftathe Profecution and Course of the War, carries the Defendant to invade the ted. ancient and undoubted Patrimony of the firft Agreffor, who is now turned Defendant: fhall he fit down, and not put himself in defence? Or if he be difpoffeffed, shall he not make a War for the Recovery? No Man is fo poor of Judgment as to affirm it. 6. The Caftle of Cadmus was taken, and the City of Thebes itself in- Exemplified. vefted by Phoebidas the Lacedemonian, infidiously, and in Violation of the League: the Process of this Action drew on a Re-furprize of the Castle by the Thebans, a Recovery of the Town, and a Current of the War, even to the Walls of Sparta. I demand, Was the Defence of the City of Sparta, and the Expulfion of the Thebans out of the ancient Laconian Territories unjuft? The sharing of that part of the Dutchy of Milan, which lies upon the River of Adda, by the Venetians, upon Contract with the French, was an ambitious and unjuft Purchase. This Wheel fet on going, poured a War upon the Venetians with fuch a Tempeft, that Padua and Trevigi were taken from them, and all their Dominions upon the Continent of Italy abandoned, and they confined within the Salt Waters. 7. Will any Man fay, that the memorable Recovery and Defence of Padua, when the Gentlemen of Venice, unufed to Wars, but from the Love of their Country became brave and martial the firft Day; and fo likewife the re-obtaining of Trevigi, and the reft of their Dominions, was matter of fcruple, whether juft or no; because it arose from a Quarrel ill begun? The War of the Duke of Urbin, Nephew to Pope Julius the Second, when he made himself Head of the Spanish Mutineers, was as unjust as unjust could be; a Support of defperate Rebels; an Invafion of St. Peter's Patrimony; and what you will. The Course of this War fell upon the Lofs of Urbin itself, which was the Duke's undoubted Right; Plenitudo poteftatis, eft plenitudo tempeftatis. VOL. II. Ꮓ yet ། yet in this Cafe no Penitentiory, tho he had enjoin'd him ever so ftrict Wars are Re- 8. There are thousands of Examples; but it were unnecessary to produce The Title of 9. As for the Title of Profcription or Forfeiture, wherein the EmpeProfcription. ror, upon the matter, has been Judge and Party, and jufticed himself; God forbid but that it fhould well endure an Appeal to a War. For certainly the Court of Heaven is as well a Chancery to fave and debar Forfeitures, as a Court of Common-Law to decide Rights: and there would be Work enough in Germany, Italy, and other Parts, if imperial Forfeitures should go for good Titles. And thus much for the firft Ground of a War with Spain, being in the Nature of a Plaint for the Recovery of the Palatinate; omitting here, what might be the Seed of a larger Difcourfe, and is verified by a Number of Examples; that whatever is gained by an abufive Treaty, ought to be restored to the full. We fee the daily Experience of this in Civil Pleas; and the Images of great things are beft feen contracted in fmall Glaffes. Thus all Pretorian Courts, if any of the Parties be entertained or laid afleep, under Pretence of Arbitrement or Accord; and the other Party, during that time, cauteloufly gets the Start and Advantage at Common-Law, tho it be to Judgment and Execution; yet the Pretorian Court reftores all things to their former State, without any refpect to fuch Eviction or Difpoffeffion. Indiction. The Seat of a 10. Laftly, let there be no Miftake; as if when I speak of a War War free after for the Recovery of the Palatinate, I meant that it must be directly upon that Place: for look into the Fecial Law, and all Examples, and it will be found, without Scruple, that after a Legation for Recovery, and a Refufal, and a Denunciation or Indiction of a War, the War is no more confined confined to the Place of the Quarrel; but left at large, and to choice, as Opportunities and Advantages fhall invite. The fecond II. 11. To proceed, therefore, to the Second Ground of a War with Spain; we have fet it down to be, a just Fear of the Subverfion of our Civil State. War; viz. a So that the War is not for the Palatinate only, but for England, Scotland, juft Fear. Ireland, our King, our Prince, our Nation, and all that we have. Wherein two things are to be proved: the one, that a juft Fear, without an actual Invasion or Offence, is a fufficient Ground of War; and in the nature of a true Defenfive: the other, that we have, with regard to Spain, Caufe of juft Fear. I fay, juft Fear: for as the Civilians well define, that the legal Fear, in private Caufes, is a juft Fear in a couragious Man' ; fo in publick Caufes, there is a juft Fear in a couragious Senate"; not out of Umbrages, light Jealoufies, or Apprehenfions afar off, but out of clear Fore-fight of imminent Danger. 12. As to the former Propofition, 'tis proper to hear what Time fays. Exemplified. Thucydides, in his Hiftory of the great Peloponnesian War, fets down in plain Terms, that the true Caufe of that War was the over-growing Greatnefs of the Athenians; and the Fear that the Lacedemonians ftood in thereby and doubts not to call it a Neceffity impofed upon the Lacedemonians of a War; which are the Words of a mere Defenfive: adding that the other Cafes were but fpecious and popular. The trueft Caufe of this War, the leaft voiced, I conceive to have been this; that the Athenians being grown great, to the terror of the Lacedemonians, impofed upon them a Neceffity of a War: but the Caufes voiced abroad were thefe, &c. 13. Sulpitius Galba, the Conful, when he perfuaded the Romans to a preventive War, with the later Philip, King of Macedon, in regard of the great Preparations which Philip had then on foot, and his Defigns to ruin fome of the Confederates of the Romans, confidently fays, that they who took it for an offensive War, understood not the State of the Question. Ye feem to me, O Romans, not to understand, that the Confultation before you is not, whether you shall have War or Peace; (for Philip will take care you fhall be no Choofers, who prepares a mighty War both by Land and Sea ;) but whether you shall transport the War into Macedon, or receive it into Italy. Antiochus, when he incited Prufias, King of Bithynia, at that time in League with the Romans, to join with him in War against them, fets before him a juft Fear of the over-fpreading Greatnefs of the Romans; comparing it to a Fire that continually fpread from Kingdom to Kingdom : faying that the Romans came to pull down all Kingdoms, and make the State of Rome an univerfal Monarchy; that Philip and Nabis were already ruin'd, and now was his turn to be affailed; fo that as every State lay next to the other that was oppreffed, fo the Fire perpetually fpread. Where it is to be well noted, that towards ambitious States, which afpire to great Monarchies, and feek upon all Occafions to enlarge their Dominions, all particular Fears grow and multiply from a View of the general Courfes and Juftus metus, qui cadit in conftantem virum. น Juftus metus, qui cadit in conftantem Senatum.. Z 2 Practice Strengthened by Authori ties. By the Policy Nations. Practice of fuch States. Therefore in Deliberations of War against the Turk, it has been often, with great Judgment, maintain'd, that Christian Princes and States have always a fufficient Ground of an invasive War against the Enemy; not for the Caufe of Religion, but upon a juft Fear; as it is a fundamental Law, in the Turkish Empire, that they may without any other Provocation make War upon Christendom, for the Propagation of their Law; fo that the Chriftians lie under a perpetual Dread of a War from them; and therefore they may at all times be upon the preventive. 14. Demofthenes derided Wars which are not preventive; comparing those that make them to Country-Fellows in a Fencing-School, who never parry till the Thruft is given. You Athenians make War with Philip, as ignorant Rufticks fence; for with them, he that gets a Hit, directly falls to guarding against another in the fame place; and if hit again in a different place, thither his Guard goes likewife; but has neither the Skill nor Intention to forefee the Stroke, nor to guard against it. 15. Clinias the Candian, in Plato, fpeaks defperately and wildly, as if there were no fuch thing as Peace between Nations; but that every Nation only waits its Advantage to make War upon another. Yet in this extravagant Speech thus much may have a civil Construction; that every State ought to ftand upon its Guard, and rather prevent, than be prevented. The Words are thefe; What Men generally mean by Peace, is but a naked and empty Name: the Truth is, that all States are ever at a fecret War. I know that this is the Objection, not the Decifion; and is afterwards. confuted yet it bears thus much of Truth, that if the general Malignity and Predifpofition to War, which he fallly reprefents to be in all Nations, is produced and extended to a juft Fear of being oppreffed, then it is no more a true Peace, but the Name of a Peace. 16. The Opinion of Iphicrates, the Athenian, demands not fo much as a of the wifeft juft Fear to a War; but rather approaches the Opinion of Clinias; as if there were among Nations a Brooding of a War; and that there is no fure League, but a want of Power to hurt. For in the Treaty of Peace with. the Lacedemonians, he speaks plain, and tells them; There could be no true and fecure Peace, except the Lacedemonians yielded to thofe things, which, when granted, it would be no longer in their Power to hurt the Athenians, tho they would. And to fay truth, if we mark it well, this was in all History the main Piece of Wisdom, in ftrong and prudent Councils, to be on perpetual Watch, that the States about them fhould neither by Approach, hor by Increase of Dominion, nor by ruining Confederates, nor by blocking of Trade, nor by any the like means, have it in their Power to annoy the State; and whenever any fuch Caufe did but appear, immediately to buy it out with War; and never to take up Peace at Credit, and upon Intereft. Princes. 17. Tis fresh in every ones Memory, how that Triumvirate of Kings, Henry VIII. of England, Francis I. of France, and Charles V. Emperor and King of Spain, were in their times fo provident, as that scarce a Palm of Ground could be got by either, but the other two would do their best to to fet the Balance of Europe upright again. And the like Diligence was used in the Age before, by that League (wherewith Guicciardine begins his Hiftory, and makes it, as it were, the Calendar of the good Days of Italy) which was contracted between Ferdinando, King of Naples, Lorenzo of Medici, Potentate of Florence, and Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, defign'd chiefly against the growing Power of the Venetians; yet so as the Confederates had a perpetual Eye upon one another, that none of them should overtop. And however fome School-men, (otherwife revered Men, yet fitter to guide Pen-knives than Swords,) feem precisely to ftand upon it, that every offenfive War must be a Revenge, that prefuppofes a Precedent, Affault, or Injury; yet they do not defcend to this Point, of a just Fear: nor are they of Authority to judge the Question against all the Precedents of Time. For certainly as long as Men are Men, the Sons of Prometheus, and not of Epimetheus, and as long as Reason is Reason, a juft Fear will be a juft Cause of a preventive War: but especially if it be part of the Cafe, that there is a Nation manifeftly detected afpiring to Monarchy and new Acquifitions; then other States cannot be juftly accused for not waiting the first Blow; or for not accepting Polyphemus's Courtesy to be the laft that fhall be eaten up. 18. Nay, in that Paffage of Plato, above cited, a juft Fear is juftified for a Caufe of an invafive War; tho the Fear proceed not from the Fault of the Foreign State to be attacked for it is there infinuated, that if a State, thro the Distemper of its own Body, fears Seditions, and intestine Troubles, in its own Bowels, it may discharge its ill Humours, by a foreign War, for a Cure. And this kind of Cure was tender'd by Jasper Coligni, Admiral of France, to Charles IX. of that Kingdom; when by a vigorous and forcible Perfuafion, he moved him to a War upon Flanders, for the better extinguishing the Civil Wars of France. 19. But neither was the Counsel profperous, nor will I maintain the Divines. Pofition; for I never fet Politicks against Ethicks; especially as true Ethicks are but like a Hand-maid to Divinity and Religion. St. Thomas, who had the largest Heart of all the School-Divines, bends his Style chiefly against the depraved Paffions which reign in the making of Wars; fpeaking thus out of St. Auguftine: The Defire of Injuring, the Cruelty of Revenge, an implacable Spirit, the Savageness of Rebellion, the Thirft of Rule, &c. are all juftly blamed in Wars. And the fame St. Thomas, in his own Text, defining the just Causes of a War, leaves it upon very general Terms thus: A juft Caufe is required in War; and that the Invaded, thro fome Fault, fhould have deferved the Invafion. And fo much for the firft Propofition, that a juft Fear is a just Caufe of a War: and that a preventive War is a true defenfive.. 20. The fecond or minor Propofition was; that this Kingdom has a juft Cause That Britain to fear an Overthrow from Spain. And here it is true, that Fears are ever has a just feen in dimmer Lights than Facts: as on the other fide, Fears are often Cause of Fear from Spain. represented in fuch an imaginary manner, as rather to dazzle Mens Eyes, than open them. I will therefore fpeak as the Subject requires; that is, See-the Fable of Prometheus, in the Sapientia Veterum, Sect. I. Fab. 2. probably,. |