And though I have said, and it is true, that it is to the serpent that God here speaks, and yet so speaks, that his words are directed all the time more expressly against Satan, as the following part of the narrative will still more plainly show; yet I am by no means satisfied that those things spoken, which rightly apply to the nature of the serpent, should be transferred allegorically, as intended to be spoken to Satan, like Augustine transfers them and is followed by Lyra. For the serpent and Satan were intimately connected in the sin of the fall, though Satan was the principal actor and the serpent only the instrument. And therefore it is that they are made alike partakers of the punishment. The serpent however bears a corporal punishment only. But for Satan, the author and agent of the whole, a different judgment is prepared, even that judgment concerning which Christ speaks, John 16:11, when he says, "Because the prince of this world is judged." The description of this judgment will now shortly follow, as recorded by Moses in the succeeding verses. Wherefore when many say that the devil, like the serpent, no longer walks erect and that he has lost his original form and stature, the things they say are true; but they are quite inappropriate here and have nothing to do with the right interpretation of the passage now in question. And when I said above, that the serpent before the curse of God upon it moved in an erect posture, I do not wish to be understood to mean that it moved in an upright position as man, but with its neck and head erect, as a stag or a peacock. To crawl on its belly therefore after the curse, was the divine judgment on the serpent. That which now follows belongs expressly to Satan only. And the things here recorded of him by Moses paint forth his judgment in far more true colors than any of those foolish and out-of-place descriptions of the allegorists. They moreover set before us this strong consolation, that the devil is now so situated that he cannot attack and harm us at his liberty, as he wishes to do and would do, if the Seed of the woman stood not directly in his way. II. V. 15a. _And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed._ These are the things which are spoken expressly and properly to Satan. And they contain his judgment. While in these same words of his judgment, there is set before the godly their strong consolation. The things above spoken are historical, as I have said, and apply to the serpent, which because through the abuse of Satan it aided in effecting the sin of Adam and Eve, bears as his part of the punishment his ejection from the common life, as it were, and from the society of the other animals of the creation; being made so different from them that he dares not eat the same food nor live in any way like them.