Nevertheless, to avoid fornication
Or "fornications"; meaning either the frequent commission of that
sin; or all sorts of uncleanness and pollution, which may be
avoided by wedlock, and the proper use of the marriage bed, where
the gift of continency is not bestowed: wherefore to prevent
unlawful copulations, as of single persons with one another, or
of a married person with a single one, the apostle advises, as
being what is right and proper,
let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have
her own
husband;
that is, let every man that has a wife enjoy her, and make use of
her, and let every woman that has an husband, receive him into
her embraces; for these words are not to be understood of
unmarried persons entering into a marriage state, for the words
suppose them in such a state, but of the proper use of the
marriage bed; and teach us that marriage, and the use of it, are
proper remedies against fornication; and that carnal copulation
of a man with a woman ought only to be of husband and wife, or of
persons in a married state; and that all other copulations are
sinful; and that polygamy is unlawful; and that one man is to
have but one wife, and to keep to her; and that one woman is to
have but one husband, and to keep to him.