Ver. 1. Whereof ye wrote unto me] Certain cases of conscience they had propounded, which here he answers. This he could do excellently, and so could Luther, as having had experience, and been much beaten and exercised with spiritual conflicts. Conscience is a diamond, and will be wrought on by nothing but dust of diamond, such as contrition hath ground it to. It is good for a man] Now since the fall, it is good, i.e. convenient for the many troubles of the married state. It is not evil to marry, but good to be wary, else coniugium may prove coniurgium, marriage a mar-age.
Ver. 2. To avoid fornication] Gr. πορνειας, fornications, comprehending all lustful burnings, self-pollutions, and all other impurities of a single life. How many are there that enter into God’s ordinance (marriage) through the devil’s portal (fornication), that take such liberty before, that after marriage they rue it all the days of their lives. Let every man have his own wife] Not many wives. Turks may have as many as they can keep. And some sensualists plead now for polygamy. See Malachi 2:15. Scotorum natio uxores proprias non habet, saith Jerome of the old Scots. And too many among us are sick of a pleurisy. Inflammation of the pleura, with or without effusion of fluid (serum, pus, blood, etc.) into the pleural cavity; a disease characterized by pain in the chest or side, with fever, loss of appetite, etc.; usually caused by chill, or occurring as a complication of other diseases (scarlatina, rheumatic fever, phthisis, etc.). ŒD
Ver. 3. Let the husband, &c.] Let them be chaste between themselves, and beware both of excess and defect. Chastity is a man’s honour, 1 Thessalonians 4:5. And modesty is the best preserver of nuptial chastity. Marriage as well as meats must be sanctified by the word and prayer. God must be sent for to bless this physic to the soul. Raging lust is a great enemy to conjugal love.
Ver. 4. The wife hath no power, &c.] The husband’s body is servant to the wife, and the wife’s to the husband: they have passed themselves one to another by mutual covenant, and God keeps the bonds, Proverbs 2:17 Mal 2:14.
Ver. 5. To fasting and prayer] Preces nobis ieiuniis alendum et quasi saginandum. Fasting days are soul fatting days: prayer is edged and winged thereby. That Satan tempt you not] The temptation is strong to fornication, stronger to adultery. Watch therefore. Our nature is catching this way; and once in, it is not so easy to come off. This is a searing sin, Hosea 4:11 Eph 4:19.
Ver. 6. And not of commandment] Among the Jews marriage was not held a thing indifferent, or at their own liberty to choose or refuse, but a binding command. (Targum on Genesis 1:28) Hereto Paul seems in this verse to allude. In this day every Jew is bound to marry about 18 years of age, or before 20; else he is accounted as one that liveth in sin.
Ver. 7. For I would that all, &c.] He had a peculiar gift, that he was so eminently chaste; such as might be in reprobates. So Moses’ meekness was partly from his natural temper. And Luther’s not being tempted to covetousness was much helped by the freeness and generousness of his spirit.
Ver. 8. I say therefore to the unmarried] Yet doth not the apostle simply prefer virginity on viduity before marriage as better. The Saturnalian heretics said that marriage was of the devil. And the blemish will never be wiped off some of the ancient fathers, who, to establish their own idol of I know not what virginity, which they themselves had not, have written most wickedly and basely of marriage. If the same God had not been the author of virginity and marriage, he had never countenanced virginity by marriage, as he did in the blessed Virgin.
Ver. 9. Let them marry] There is no lust so hot and violent, but God’s medicines rightly applied will cool and heal. Only remember that it is not the having, but the loving of a wife that keepeth a man chaste and clean. And that God doth use to correct excess and dalliance between married couples, with strong temptations after strange flesh. Better to marry than burn] As an oven heated by the baker, Hosea 7:4. As those pagans were scalded, Romans 1:27, and these papagans still are, that are forbidden to marry, and yet cannot contain. Papist, Popish (with allusion to pagan). ŒD
Ver. 10. Yet not I] By prudential advice only. But the Lord] Not in so many words, but by just consequence drawn from Matthew 19:6.
Ver. 11. Or let her be reconciled] Ut quae mode pugnarant iungant sua rostra columbae. (Ovid.) Why should married couples be as glass, that being once broken can never be pieced again? The Lord hates putting away, Malachi 2:16.
Ver. 12. Let him not put her away] For to the pure all things are pure. Uxoris vitium aut tollendum, aut tolerandum est, saith Varro in Gellius. Mend a bad wife, if thou canst; bear with her, if thou canst not.