Verse 7 Even as I myself; that is, single. (See 1 Corinthians 9:5.) The preference which Paul seems to express here for a single life, in the cases of those for whom such a life was safe, has been made by the Roman Catholic church the ostensible foundation of the rule by which they enjoin celibacy in the clergy. History, however, shows that the real ground on which that practice is sustained, is that, by such a system, a body of men is perpetuated in the various countries over which that church extends, who, being bound to the social community by few ties, are the more effective and subservient as instruments of ecclesiastical power. Unmarried priests are like unmarried soldiers, which every military commander prefers.