The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated…

L. But one thing is unanswerable: No man is bound by a Vow that had not a self-obliging power: But the Subjects of England and Scotland, had no self-obliging power to take that Covenant, because the King was against it. The 30. of Levit proveth this at large.

M. Indeed if the Act of Vowing were not only sinful but a mere nullity, that Vow being no Vow, could not bind: But that Levit. 30. doth no whit prove this, I have fully manifested in my Christian Directory in the chap. of Vows, to which I refer you part. 3. cap. 5. Where the whole case of Vows is so largely opened, that I will here only say this little. The text of Levit. 30. doth expressly speak only of Women, that are in a Parents or Husbands house, and only of Vows made freely to God of doing or offering something to him: Yea it seemeth limited to them, of which many reasons may be given. And many reasons I have there mentioned pag. 33. why it doth not extend to Princes and Magistrates for releasing their Subjects from their Vows, tho' some pretend a parity of reason. But these things are certain. ⟨p. 205⟩1. That even the Parents make not the Vow null at its first making, but only relax it after, and stop the Confirmation of it, vers. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12. 2. That this Power is about vows to God, as good or hurtful to the inferiors; and that some Vows are so certainly necessary to the inferiors good, that the Father or Husband (whose Power is only for their good, and not their hurt) cannot dispense with it. As Dr. Sanderson, saith Praelect. 4. §. 5. p. 104, 105. it belongeth only to that matter in which one is under another Government, which hath §. 6. a double limitation, One in the person of the Swearer, viz. There is scarce any one that hath the use of reason, that is so fully under another's Power, but that in some things he is fui Juris. And there every man may do as pleases himself, without consulting his Superior, so at that by his own Act; without his Superiors Licence, he may bind himself. 2. As to the consent of a Superior—a tacit consent antecedent or consequent suffices—Quasi diceret, si dissensum suum vel uno die dissimulet votum in perpetuum stabilivit. And it is certain that to oppose Profaneness, Schism, and Popery, and to Repent of Sin, are things so necessary, and so much for every persons good, that no Parent or Husband can either forbid or nullify such a Vow: No man can hinder any from Vowing in Baptism to be a Christian, and to forbear Murder, Adultery, Theft, Idolatry, &c. nor can disoblige them after. It is certain that if a superior dissent, and after consent, or he die, and the next superior (e.g.