The Place Of Speaking

Et erit: in loco, ubi dictum est eis: Non plebs mea vos: ibi vocabuntur filii Dei vivi. Quis iste locus est? Nunquid Judaea? Numquid Roma? Absit! Judaea dignior, Roma sublimior locus est, ubi Deum loqui decet, vel possibile est. Locus enim hic mens hominis est, sensus rationis, principale cordis. Ibi agente Deo peccatori populo damnabilis dicit conscientia: Non plebs mea vos, quibus vero charitatis diffunditur in cordibus suis, per Spiritum Sanctum qui datus est eis, testimonium perhibet ipse Spiritus, quod sunt filii Dei. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber IX Source: Migne PG 180.651a-b

But it shall be in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they shall be called the sons of the living God. 1 What is this place? Is it Judea? Is it Rome? Let it not be! That Judea is more worthy, Rome more noble a place where it befits God to speak, or that it is possible. For this place is the soul of a man, his rational mind, the depth of his heart. There by God's work a damned conscience speaks to a sinful people: 'You are not my people', and yet also by which love is diffused in the heart, by the Holy Spirit which is given to them, the same Spirit who gives witness that they are sons of God. William of St Thierry, Commentary on Romans, Book 9 1 Rom 9.26, Hosea 2.24