1. A lawful oath is a part of religious worship, in which, on an appropriate occasion, the person swearing solemnly calls God to witness what he asserts or promises, and calls on God to judge him according to the truth or falsehood of what he swears.

2. People ought to swear only by the name of God, and in that, it is to be used with holy fear and reverence. Therefore to swear vainly or rashly by that glorious and dreadful Name, and to swear at all by any other thing, is sinful and to be abhorred. However, because an oath is warranted by the Word of God in matters of weight and significance, in the New Testament as well as the Old, in such matters a lawful oath ought to be taken, when required by a lawful authority.

3. Whoever takes an oath ought to duly consider the weightiness of so solemn an act, and in it to vouch for nothing except what he is fully persuaded is the truth. No one may bind himself by oath to do anything except what is good and just, or what he believes to be so, and what he is able and resolved to perform. Yet it is a sin to refuse to give an oath on anything that is good and just if it is required by a lawful authority.

4. An oath is to be taken in the plain and common sense of the words, without equivocation or mental reservation. It cannot obligate a person to sin, but in anything not sinful, if an oath is taken, it binds the person to perform it, even if to his own hurt. Also, it may not be violated on the basis that it was made to heretics or those who reject the faith.

5. A vow is similar in nature to a promissory oath, and ought to be made with the same religious care and performed with the same faithfulness.

6. A vow is not to be made to any creature, but to God alone. To be accepted, it is to be made voluntarily, out of faith in God and awareness of our duty, either as an act of thankfulness for mercy we have received or for obtaining something we want, in which case we may more strictly bind ourselves to necessary duties or to other things, so far and so long as they may be appropriate for those goals.

7. No one may vow to do anything forbidden in the Word of God or which would hinder any duty commanded in it, or to do anything which is not in his own power, and for the performance of which he has no promise of ability from God. In these respects, monastic vows like those of the Roman Catholic church of perpetual single life, professed poverty, and continual obedience to superiors are so far from being degrees of higher perfection, that they are superstitious and sinful snares in which no Christian ought to entangle himself.