When the Jews were led in captivity from Judea to Babylon, a little
before they quitted their own country, the prophet Jeremiah, whom the
Lord had forbidden to leave Jerusalem, spoke thus to them: "Children
of Israel, when you shall arrive at Babylon, you will behold the
inhabitants of that country, who carry upon their shoulders gods of
silver and gold. All the people will prostrate themselves and adore
them. But you, far from allowing yourselves, by these examples, to be
led to impiety, say to yourselves in secret, It is Thou, O Lord! whom
we ought to adore."

Let me now finish by addressing to you the same words.

At your departure from this temple, you go to enter into another
Babylon. You go to see the idols of gold and silver, before which all
men prostrate themselves. You go to regain the vain objects of human
passions, wealth, glory, and pleasure, which are the gods of this
world and which almost all men adore. You will see those abuses which
all the world permits, those errors which custom authorizes, and those
debaucheries, which an infamous fashion has almost constituted as
laws. Then, my dear hearer, if you wish to be of the small number of
true Israelites, say, in the secrecy of your heart, "It is Thou alone,
O my God! whom we ought to adore. I wish not to have connection with
a people which know Thee not; I will have no other law than Thy holy
law; the gods which this foolish multitude adore are not gods; they
are the work of the hands of men; they will perish with them; Thou
alone, O my God! art immortal; and Thou alone deservest to be adored.
The customs of Babylon have no connection with the holy laws of
Jerusalem. I will continue to worship Thee, with that small number
of the children of Abraham which still, in the midst of an infidel