8. The Serpent that tempted _Evah_ in Paradise, is there said to be _more subtile than every beast of the field_, the which (if the writing of such as have observed and described the nature of all sorts of animals be true) cannot be avouched truly of the natural Serpent. For there are many other creatures more subtil than the Serpent. And therefore it must needs be understood of the spiritual Serpent, that is, Satan who is (indeed) the old Serpent. [Sidenote: Judg. 9. 7, 8, 9, 10, &c.] 9. _Moses_ doth therefore purposely attribute speech to the Serpent which tempted _Evah_, to the end we (knowing by experience that speech cannot properly accord with a natural Serpent) might the rather be induced to believe that the same must metaphorically be understood of the spiritual Serpent. For we may with like absurdity imagine that _the olive, the fig, the Vine-trees and the Bramble_ did vocally and articulately speak one to another; as to suppose that either the Serpent, or the Devil in the Serpent did use an articulate voice and discourse unto _Evah_; they are both alike credible, and both alike absurd. 10. The punishment inflicted by God, hath no conveniency at all with the natural, but with the spiritual and mystical Serpent, which is the Devil. For neither can the going upon her belly, nor the eating of dust be any punishment at all to the natural Serpent, because (before the tentation) both those properties were peculiarly allotted unto her, she taking her name from her creeping condition, for _Serpens_ is derived _à serpendo_, and in the Hebrew she is called ‏רֶמֶשׂ‎ _reptile à_ ‏רָמַשׂ‎, _reptavit, serpsit_. Neither yet may we imagine that the said Serpent being of some better form before the tentation, was then (by the just judgment of God) transformed into a viler proportion, property or shape, she being in the History of the Creation accompted amongst the creeping Creatures. [Sidenote: Exod. 4. 3.] [Sidenote: _Aug. ad Gen._ _lib._ 11. _cap._ 1.] [Sidenote: _Greg. in Moràl._] [Sidenote: Pet. Martyr in Gen. 3. 1.]