24:1 Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband; at the same time (Gen_2:24; Pro_2:17; Mat_19:5, Mat_19:6).

24:2 Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife (Gen_2:18), for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed (Mal_2:15); and for preventing of uncleanness (1Co_7:2, 1Co_7:9).

24:3 It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent (Gen_24:57, Gen_24:58; 1Co_7:36-38; 1Ti_4:3; Heb_13:4). Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord (1Co_7:39): and therefore such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, papists, or other idolaters: neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresies (Gen_34:14; Exo_34:16; Deu_7:3, Deu_7:4; 1Ki_11:4; Neh_13:25-27; Mal_2:11, Mal_2:12; 2Co_6:14).

24:4 Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden by the Word (Lev 18:1-30; Amo_2:7; 1Co_5:1); nor can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties, so as those persons may live together as man and wife (Lev_18:24-28; Mar_6:18). The man may not marry any of his wife’s kindred nearer in blood than he may of his own; nor the woman of her husband’s kindred nearer in blood than of her own (Lev_20:19-21).

24:5 Adultery or fornication committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract (Mat_1:18-20). In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce (Mat_5:31, Mat_5:32): and, after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead (Mat_19:9; Rom_7:2, Rom_7:3).

24:6 Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage: yet nothing but adultery, or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the Church or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage (Mat_19:6, Mat_19:8, Mat_19:9; 1Co_7:15): wherein, a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it not left to their own wills and discretion, in their own case (Deu_24:1-4).