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The office of Christ is more worthy than the office of the priests under the old law, which was imperfect, and was therefore abrogated.

Of the things which we have spoken, this is the pith: that we have such a high priest as sits on the right hand of the seat of majesty in heaven, and is a minister of holy things, and of the very tabernacle that God pitched, and not man.

For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, and therefore it is necessary that this man also have something to offer. For he would not be a priest if he were on the earth, where are the priests who offer gifts according to the law. Such priests serve in the figure and shadow of heavenly things, in accordance with the oracle of God given to Moses when he was about to make the tabernacle: Take heed (said he) that you fashion all things according to the pattern shown to you in the mount.

Now he has obtained a more excellent office, inasmuch as he is the mediator of a better testament, which was made for better promises. For if that first testament had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second.

For in rebuking the people, he says: Behold, the days will come (says the Lord) when I will make a new testament with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the testament that I made with their fathers at the time when I took them by the hands to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my testament, and I regarded them not, says the Lord.

10 For this is the testament that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach everyone his neighbour and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord! For they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful over their unrighteousness, and over their sins and their iniquities.

13 In that he says a new testament, he has abrogated the old. Now that which is abolished and grown old, is ready to vanish away.