The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall follow after him, as there are innumerable gone before him.
All Commentaries on Job 21:33 Go To Job 21
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
71. ‘Cocytus’ in the Greek tongue is the term for ‘lamentation,’ which is used to be taken for the lamentation of women, or any persons going weakly. Now the wise of this world being shut out from the light of truth, endeavoured by making search to hold a kind of shadows of truth. Hence they thought that the river Cocytus ran amongst the dead below, clearly denoting that they that commit deeds worthy of painful inflictions, run to an end into hell unto lamentation. But for ourselves let us make little of the shadow of carnal wisdom, who now hold the light relating to the truth, and let us see that in the utterance of the holy man ‘Cocytus’ means the lamentation of the weak sort. For it is written, Be of good courage, and let your heart be strengthened. [Ps. 31, 24] For they who refuse to be ‘strengthened’ in God, are going the way to lamentation through weakness of the mind. Now we are used to call by the name of pebbles the little stones of rivers, which the water in running away carries along with it. What then is denoted by the pebbles of Cocytus, but the lost, who, being devoted to their gratifications, are as it were ever being dragged by the river down to the lowest depth. For they that refuse to stand strong and stedfast against the pleasures of this life, become ‘pebbles of Cocytus,’ who by their slippings day by day are going the way to lamentation, that they may hereafter mourn for everlasting, who now indulgently give themselves a loose in their pleasures. And whereas our old enemy, having entered into his vessel, that son of perdition, whilst he bestows gifts on the wicked, whilst he exalts them with honours in this world, whilst he exhibits marvels to their eyes, has all drifting souls admiring and following him in his marvels, it is said well of him here, He was sweet to the pebbles of Cocytus. For whilst the Elect despise him, whilst they spurn him with the foot of the mind, those love while they follow him, who are as it were drawn by the water of pleasure to everlasting lamentation, who from earthly concupiscence roll down to the lowest depth like gravel, by slippings day by day. For to some he proffers the taste of his sweetness through pride, to others through avarice; to one set by envy, to another by deceitfulness, and to another by lust, and for all the kinds of evil that he forces men to, he presents to them so many draughts of his sweetness. For when he prompts any thing proud in the heart, the thing becomes sweet that he says, because the wicked man longs to appear advanced above the rest of the world. Whilst he strives to infuse avarice into the mind, that which he speaks in secret becomes sweet, because by abundance need is avoided. When he suggests any thing to do with envy, what he says is rendered sweet, in that when the froward mind sees another go off, it exults in not appearing at all inferior to him. When it prompts any thing to do with deceitfulness, what it says is made sweet, seeing that by this alone, that it deceives the rest of the world, it appears to itself to be wise. When it speaks lust to the seduced soul, what it recommends is rendered sweet, in that it dissolves the soul in pleasure. Therefore, for all the evil propensities that it insinuates into the hearts of carnal men, it as it were holds out to them so many draughts of its sweetness; which same sweetness, however, as I have before said, none receive save they, who being devoted to present gratifications, are drawn to everlasting lamentation. And so it is well said, He was sweet to the pebbles of Cocytus; seeing that he is bitter to the Elect and sweet to the lost. For them only does he feed with his delights, whom by daily slippings he is urging to lamentations, It goes on;
And he draweth every man after him, as there are innumerable before him.
72. In this place by ‘man’ is meant one whose taste is for things human. But whereas ‘everyone’ is more than an ‘innumerable’ quantity, we have to enquire, wherefore he is said before him to draw an ‘innumerable’ quantity, and after him ‘every man’ saving that our old enemy, having then entered into the man of perdition, drags under the yoke of his sovereignty all the carnal ones that he finds; who even now before his appearing ‘draws an innumerable quantity’ indeed, yet not ‘everyone’ of the carnal, in that there are many that are daily recalled to life from carnal practice, and some by a short, others by a long course of penitence return to the state of righteousness. And now he seizes on an ‘innumerable quantity,’ when he does not exhibit the miracles of his falseness for men to marvel at. But when he performs his prodigies before the eyes of the carnal for them to wonder at, he then draws after him not an ‘innumerable quantity,’ but ‘everyone,’ in that they who delight themselves in present good things, submit themselves to his power without repeal. But as we before said, because it is more to ‘draw every man’ than an ‘innumerable quantity,’ wherefore is it first said that he draws every man, and afterwards in augmentation an innumerable quantity is added? For reason requires that first what is least should be spoken of, and afterwards in augmentation that which is more. Now we are to know that in this passage it was more to say, ‘an innumerable quantity’ than ‘every man.’ For he after him ‘draws every man,’ in that in three years and a half all that he may find busied in the pursuits of a carnal life he binds fast to the yoke of his dominion; but before him he draws an innumerable quantity, in that during the successive stages of five thousand years and more, though he could never succeed in drawing all the carnal, yet in so long a period the innumerable quantity whom he carries away before him, are many more in number than ‘all’ whom he finds to carry off in that so short time. And so it is well said, And he draweth every man after him, also innumerable before him; in that he both takes away less then, when he takes away ‘every man,’ and he gets a bigger booty now, when he assails the hearts of an ‘innumerable quantity.’ Whereas blessed Job then delivered these things excellently against the prince of the wicked, who is permitted to be exalted in this life, but will be destroyed in the coming of the Lord,
touching himself he plainly shews that he received the scourges of the Lord not by his offending, since if the bad man is permitted to prosper ‘in this life, it is necessary that the elect of God should be held fast under the reins of the scourge.
