The Temple Of The Lord

Nolite confidere in verbis mendacii, dicentes: Templum Domini, templum Domini, templum Domini est: quoniam si direxeritis vias vestras et studia vestra: si feceritis judicium inter virum et proximum ejus: advenae, et pupillo, et viduae non feceritis calumniam (sive non oppresseritis eos) nec sanguinem innocentem effuderitis in loco hoc: et post deos alienos non ambulaveritis in malum vobismetipsis; habitabo vobiscum in isto loco, in terra quam dedi patribus vestris a saeculo usque in saeculum. Hoc quod Septuaginta in hujus capituli addidere principio: in verbis mendacii, quae vobis omnino non proderunt, in Hebraico non habetur. Praecepit autem et tunc populo Judaeorum, et hodie nobis qui videmur in Ecclesia constituti, ne fiduciam habeamus in aedificiorum splendore, auratisque laquearibus, et vestitis parietibus marmorum crustis. Et dicamus: Templum Domini, templum Domini, templum Domini est. Illud enim templum Domini est, in quo habitat vera fides, sancta conversatio, omniumque virtutum chorus. Denique infert: Si rectas feceritis vias vestras, et cogitatio vestra non abierit post errorem, et secuti fueritis justitiam, et malum non feceritis, neque effuderitis sanguinem innocentem, simplices quosque non scandalizantes; et post deos alienos non ambulaveritis, perversa adorantes dogmata, quae de vestro corde simulastis in malum vobismetipsis: vel habitabo vobiscum in loco isto, quem vocatis Templum Dei, et in terra quam dedi patribus vestris, Apostolis scilicet et Apostolicis viris: vel certe firma statione habitare vos faciam a principio usque ad finem. Potest hoc et illis virginibus convenire, quae jactant pudicitiam, et impudenti vultu praeferunt castitatem, cum aliud habeat conscientia, et nesciunt illam definitionem Apostoli virginalem: Ut sit sancta corpore et spiritu. Quid enim prodest corporis pudicitia animo constuprato, si caeteras virtutes quas propheticus sermo descripsit, non habuerit? Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Jeremiam Propheta, Liber II Cap VII Source Migne PL 24.757d-756b

Do not trust in the deceptive words, 'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, this is the Temple of the Lord' because if you correct your ways and pursuits, if you truly act justly among men and your neighbours, and do not deceive, (or oppress) the foreigner, and the orphan, and the widow, or pour out innocent blood in this place, and if you do not walk after other gods to your own evil, than I will dwell with you in this place, in the land which I gave of old to your fathers.1 That which the Septuagint has added at the beginning of this passage, 'in the deceptive words which will not profit you at all' is not found in the Hebrew. As it was commanded to the Jewish people then, even today it is to us who seem to be established in the Church, that we should not put our trust in the splendour of buildings and in panelled ceilings overlaid with gold, and walls decorated with coverings of marble, and say, 'The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, this is the Temple of the Lord.' For the temple of the Lord is the place where true faith dwells, and holy conduct, and a chorus of all the virtues. Then it says, 'If you correct your ways, if your thoughts do not wander off after error but you follow justice and do no evil, if you do not pour out innocent blood, and do not scandalise simple folk, and if you do not go after other gods, adoring perverse teachings that you have fashioned from your own hearts to your own evil, then I will dwell with you in this place, which you call the Temple of God, and in the land which I gave to your fathers, that is, the Apostles and apostolic men, or then I will make you dwell with a secure standing, from the beginning to the end. And this may also touch on virgins who boast of their purity and exhibit their chastity with shameless faces, with something quite different in their minds, they who do not know the Apostolic definition of virginity: to be holy in body and spirit. 2 For how does purity of body profit if the soul is ravished, and the other virtues, which the prophetic words describes, are absent? Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 2, Chapter 7 1 Jerem 7.4-7 2 1 Cor 7.34-36