Homilies on the Statues

^10. And not only from thence, but from another consideration also, I will endeavour to show you how man was self-taught with respect to the knowledge of virtue. Adam sinned the first sin; and after the sin straightway hid himself; but if he had not known he had been doing something wrong, why did he hide himself? For then there were neither letters, nor law, nor Moses. Whence then does he recognise the sin, and hide himself? Yet not only does he so hide himself, but when called to account, he endeavours to lay the blame on another, saying, “The woman, whom You gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” And that woman again transfers the accusation to another, viz. the serpent. Observe also the wisdom of God; for when Adam said, “I heard Your voice, and I was afraid, for I was naked, and I hid myself,” God does not at once convict him of what he had done, nor say, “Why have you eaten of the tree?” But how? “Who told you,” He asks, “that you were naked, unless you have eaten of that Tree of which alone I commanded you not to eat?” He did not keep silence, nor did He openly convict him. He did not keep silence, that He might call him forth to the confession of his crime. He did not convict him openly, lest the whole might come from Himself, and the man should so be deprived of that pardon which is granted us from confession. Therefore he did not declare openly the cause from whence this knowledge sprung, but he carried on the discourse in the form of interrogation, leaving the man himself to come to the confession.