How the Devil used the serpent. 34. God, who has supreme power over all that He has created and who uses the ministry of His holy angels to mock the Devil—for the Devil’s evil will is used to serve the Church of God—did not permit him to tempt the woman except by the serpent, nor the man except by the woman. In the serpent it was the Devil who spoke, using that creature as an instrument, moving it as he was able to move it and as it was capable of being moved, to produce the sounds of