which it is expedient to do. Hence it is expedient
to take vows.

Reply Obj. 1: Even as one's liberty is not lessened by one being
unable to sin, so, too, the necessity resulting from a will firmly
fixed to good does not lessen the liberty, as instanced in God and
the blessed. Such is the necessity implied by a vow, bearing a
certain resemblance to the confirmation of the blessed. Hence,
Augustine says (Ep. cxxvii, ad Arment. et Paulin.) that "happy is
the necessity that compels us to do the better things."

Reply Obj. 2: When danger arises from the deed itself, this deed is
not expedient, for instance that one cross a river by a tottering
bridge: but if the danger arise through man's failure in the deed,
the latter does not cease to be expedient: thus it is expedient to
mount on horseback, though there be the danger of a fall from the
horse: else it would behoove one to desist from all good things, that
may become dangerous accidentally. Wherefore it is written (Eccles.
11:4): "He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that
considereth the clouds shall never reap." Now a man incurs danger,
not from the vow itself, but from his fault, when he changes his mind
by breaking his vow. Hence, Augustine says (Ep. cxxvii, ad Arment. et
Paulin.): "Repent not of thy vow: thou shouldst rather rejoice that
thou canst no longer do what thou mightest lawfully have done to thy
detriment."

Reply Obj. 3: It was incompetent for Christ, by His very nature, to
take a vow, both because He was God, and because, as man, His will
was firmly fixed on the good, since He was a _comprehensor._ By a
kind of similitude, however, He is represented as saying (Ps. 21:26):
"I will pay my vows in the sight of them that fear Him," when He is
speaking of His body, which is the Church.

The apostles are understood to have vowed things pertaining to the
state of perfection when "they left all things and followed Christ."
_______________________

FIFTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 88, Art. 5]

Whether a Vow Is an Act of Latria or Religion?

Objection 1: It would seem that a vow is not an act of latria or
religion. Every act of virtue is matter for a vow. Now it would seem
to pertain to the same virtue to promise a thing and to do it.
Therefore a vow pertains to any virtue and not to religion especially.

Obj. 2: Further, according to Tully (De Invent. ii, 53) it belongs to
religion to offer God worship and ceremonial rites. But he who takes
a vow do