But, _Secondly_, It may be considered in an awful sense, to which I rather incline, because it does not say they shall lie down together, nor that they shall eat the green pastures of Christ, but _straw_. It may signify a person who has heard the Gospel and rejected it, to whom it has become the savour of death unto death. These may become fierce and cruel opposers of the Gospel; the worst opposers, as they attempt to stab religion in its vitals. These are called by the Apostle, the _Adversaries_, who have scorned the Saviour, despised his blood, and opposed his truths. Witness some that have heard the Gospel, and once professed all the truth, who have since turned Deists, Arians, Socinians, Muggletonians, and Sabellians, and are now wickedly and spitefully using all their arguments and influence against the truth, and to deceive souls. These Lions are coupled with the Bullock in the text; by whom we may understand Persecutors. Hence our Lord explains, _Fat Bulls of Bashan enclose me in on every side_. David prays, _Rebuke the company of Spearmen_, _the multitude of the Bulls_, _with the Calves of the People_. And God, by Isaiah, threatens them in tremendous language—Chap. xxxiv. 7. These characters are said to eat _straw_—by which we may understand the refuse of the Lord’s floor; not Wheat, but Chaff, Stubble, and Straw, fit fuel for fire—who must, and will be driven out of the Church, the Barn Floor—whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his Floor—he will burn up the chaff with fire! These hypocrites, Apostates, Imposters, and their errors, are the delight of such characters, and God has coupled them together, in the 1st Chapter of _Isaiah_—_And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together_; _and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed_. Thus the Lion shall eat Straw like the Bullock. I come now to that part of the verse I first read. I shall consider, _First_, the _Serpent_—_Secondly_, the _Food_ that is appointed him. _Dust SHALL be the Serpent’s meat_.