Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Ver. 21. Coats of skins and clothed them.] God put them in leather, when yet there was better means of clothing, to humble them doubtless, and draw them to repentance. Whether God created these skins anew, or took them off the backs of sheep and goats killed for sacrifice, to remind man of his mortality and mortification, it much matters not. Our first parents, who, even after the fall were the goodliest creatures that ever lived, went no better clothed: no more did those worthies "of whom the world was not worthy." Heb 11:38 And surely, howsoever our condition and calling afford us better array, and the vulgar, like a Bohemian cur, a fawn upon every good suit (purpuram magis quam Deam colunt), yet we must take heed that pride creep not into our clothes, those ensigns of our sin and shame, since our fineness is our filthiness, our neatness our nastiness. It is a sure sign of a base mind, b though in high place, to think he can make himself great with anything that is less than himself, and win more credit by his garments than his graces. St Peter teacheth women (who, many of them, are too much addicted to over-much fineness) to garnish themselves, not with gay clothes, but with a "meek and quiet spirit," 1Pe 3:3-4 as Sarah did, and not as those mincing dames, whose pride the prophet inveighs against, as punctually as if he had viewed the ladies' wardrobes in Jerusalem. Isa 3:1-26 Rich apparel are but fine covers of the foulest shame. The worst is nature's garment; the best but folly's garnish. How blessed a nation were we, if every silken suit did cover a sanctified soul: or if we would look upon our clothes, as our first parents did, as lovetokens from God!
Nam, cum charissima semper
Munera sunt, author quae pretiosa facit.
How could they but see it to be a singular favour that God with his own hands should clothe them (though he had cast them out of Paradise for their nurture); a visible sacrament of his invisible love and grace concerning their souls, in covering their sins, and so interesting them into true blessedness. Psa 32:1-2
a The dogs that kept Vulcan's temple would tear those that came in tattered clothes. - Hospinian .
b Vestium curiositas, deformitatis mentium et morum ndicium est. - Bernard .