Christ’s Eternal Priesthood

1What we have said amounts to this; we have an high priest, who sits in heaven on the right hand of the throne of the divine majesty. 2a priest of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord made, and not man. 3every high priest being establish'd to offer gifts and sacrifices: it was necessary that he likewise should make a peculiar offering, 4which office he could not discharge here upon earth, where priests are already establish'd, who offer gifts according to the law: 5and officiate in the sanctuary, which was a gross representation of that in heaven, agreeable to the order given by God to Moses, when he projected the tabernacle, "be very exact, said he, in following the model which was laid before thee in the mount."

The New Covenant

6Our high priest then has obtained a priesthood so much the more excellent, as he is the mediator of a better alliance, established upon better promises.

7for if the first alliance had been without defect, there could have been no occasion for the second.

8nor for that reproach, which was made to our fathers, where 'tis said, "behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new alliance with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda:

9not according to the alliance that I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they have not kept my alliance, wherefore I have rejected them, saith the Lord.

10but this is the alliance that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

11they shall no longer instruct every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12for I will pardon their iniquity, and their sins and their trangressions will I remember no more."

13now by stiling the second a new alliance, he has antiquated the first, but to be antiquated and obsolete is next to being abolished.