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"God
put the question [to Adam - "where art thou"] with an appearance of
uncertainty, in order that even here He might prove man to be the
subject of a free will in the alternative of either a denial or a
confession, and give to him the opportunity of freely acknowledging
his transgression, and, so far, of lightening it. In like manner He
inquires of Cain where his brother was, just as if He had not yet
heard the blood of Abel crying from the ground, in order that he too
might have the opportunity from the same power of the will of
spontaneously denying, and to this degree aggravating, his crime; and
that thus there might be supplied to us examples of confessing sins
rather than of denying them: so that even then was initiated the
evangelic doctrine, “By thy words thou shall be justified, and by thy
words thou shalt be condemned.” (Tertullian, Against Marcion, Bk. II,
xxv)
"That
rich man did go his way who had not “received” the precept of
dividing his substance to the needy, and was abandoned by the Lord to
his own opinion. Nor will “harshness” be on this account imputed to
Christ, the Found of the vicious action of each individual free-will.
“Behold,” saith He, “I have set before thee good and evil.” Choose
that which is good: if you cannot, because you will not — for that you
can if you will He has shown, because He has proposed each to your
free-will — you ought to depart from Him whose will you do not."
(Tertullian, On Monogamy, XIV)
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