216. And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles. To "sew leaves together" is to excuse themselves; the "fig-tree" is natural good; and to "make themselves girdles" is to be affected with shame. Thus spoke the most ancient people, and thus they described this posterity of the church, signifying that instead of the innocence they had formerly enjoyed, they possessed only natural good, by which their evil was concealed; and being in natural good, they were affected with shame.
