The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things…

And therefore condemning that Vow doth no whit secure the Government of the Church (e. g. Lay Chancellors use of the Keys, or the destruction of discipline) from their Lawful endeavours to alter it. And they profess that seeing the King hath power to command them Lawful things, if they had Vowed any thing merely Indifferent it would not have bound them against the Kings Commands; Because it is not in subjects power, by Vows to withdraw themselves from their obedience to authority. Some say that the Proclamation of King Charles the first against the Covenant nulled the obligation. But others truly say, 1. That it could null no ⟨p. 214⟩more than the Imposition to take it, and not the obligation when it's taken, in necessary things: 2. That this is nothing to all them that took it afterward, and that when Charles II. had (though injuriously) been drawn to declare for it. Some say that it binds not because men took it unwillingly. But others truly say, 1. that this would leave it in the power of a bad man to nullify all Vows and contracts, by saying that he did them unwillingly: 2. That man hath f•ee will and cannot be compelled: And a Vow of a thing Lawful to save ones life bindeth: Men must rather die than lie. 3. This would teach Subjects to say that they take all Oaths of Allegiance to the King unwillingly and therefore are not bound. 4. Its true that no man that forceth another injuriously to a promise can claim to himself any right from that which was not free but procured by his own injurious violence or fraud; But God wrongeth none, and a Vow to God bindeth though procured by sinful force by men. Some say that It was only a League and Covenant with men, and not a Vow, and therefore ceaseth c•ssante occasion, and by the consent of Parliament•, &c. Ans. There is no place for the belief of this objection to any that knoweth a Vow otherwise than by the name: Indeed an Oath that is but an appeal to God, that I will faithfully perform my Covenant with a man, obligeth me not when that man hath discharged me from any obligation to him. But this in question was primarily a promise or Covenant made to God (which is a Vow,) and a League and Covenant of men with one another that they will perform it; as is notorious to any man that ⟨p. 215⟩