QUEST. XXXVII. Whether or no it be lawfull that the Estates of Scotland help their op∣pressed brethren the Parliament and Protestants in England a∣gainst Papists and Prelates now in Armes against them, and kil∣ling them, and ••ndevouring the establishment of Poperie, though the King of Scotland should inhibit them?
MArianus saith, one is obliged to help his brother, non vincul•• essicace, not with any efficacious band, because in these (saith he) non est actio a••t poena, one may not have action of law against his brother, who refuseth to help him; yet (saith he) as man he is ob∣liged to man nexu civilis societatis, by the bond of humane society. Others say, one nation may indirectly defend a neighbour nation against a common enemie, because it is a self-defence; and it is pre∣sumed that a forraigne enemie having overcome the neighbour na∣tion, shall invade that nation it selfe who denyeth help and succour to the neighbour nation, this is a self-opinion, and to me it looketh not like the spirit••all Law of God.
3. Some say it is lawfull, but not alwayes expedient, in which opinion there is this much truth, that if the neighbor nation have an evil cause, neque licet, neque expedit, it is neither lawfull, nor expedient.