scarcely having any higher end than the sexual intercourse of brutes. This cannot be his meaning ; not only because it is contrary to Scripture, but also because Paul elsewhere, Eph. 5, 22-33, represents marriage as a most ennobling spiritual union ; which raises a man out of himself and makes him live for another ; a union so elevated and refining as to render it the fit symbol of that bond between Christ and his people, by which they are exalted to the full perfection of their being. Marriage, according to Paul, does for man in the sphere of nature, what union with Christ does for him in the sphere of grace. The truth is that the apostle writes to the Corin- thians as he would do to an army about to enter on a most unequal conflict in an enemy's country, and for a protracted period. He tells them, ' This is no time for you to think of marriage. You have a right to marry. And in general it is best that all men should marry. But in your circumstances marriage can only lead to embarrassment and increase of suf- fering.' This is the only view of the matter by which we can reconcile the apostle with himself, or with the truth of Scrip- ture and of fact. This must therefore be borne in mind in the interpretation of this whole chapter.
10. 11. And unto the married I command, (yet) not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from (her) husband : But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to (her) husband : and let not the husband put away (his) wife.
The first part of the 11th verse is a parenthesis, the con- struction goes on with the last clause. To the married I command, ' Let not the wife depart from her husband ; and let not the husband put away his wife.' The distinction which he here and in v. 12 makes between his commands and those of the Lord, is not a distinction between what is inspired and what is not ; nor is it a distinction between what Paul taught and what the Scriptures teach as Calvin understands it ; but Lord here evidently refers to Christ ; and the distinction in- tended is between what Christ had taught while on earth, and what Paul by his Spirit was inspired to teach. He tells the Corinthians that so far as the matter of divorce was concerned, they had no need to apply to him for instruction ; Christ had already taught that the marriage bond could not be dissolved