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¹ And verily the first covenant also had ordinances of worship and a worldly sanctuary.² For there was a tabernacle prepared, the first, in which was the candlestick, and the table, and the shew-bread; which is called The holy place.³ And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called The holy of holies,⁴ Having the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein was a golden pot having the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant:⁵ And over it were the Cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy-seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.⁶ Now these things being thus prepared, the priests go always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing their services.⁷ But into the second, only the high-priest once a year, not without blood, which he offereth for himself and the errors of the people:

⁸ The Holy Ghost evidently shewing this, that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was still subsisting,⁹ Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, which could not perfect the worshiper as to his conscience,¹⁰ Only with meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed till the time of reformation.¹¹ But Christ being come, an high-priest of good things to come, through a greater and more perfect tabernacle,¹² not made with hands, that is, not of this building, And not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.¹³ For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:¹⁴ How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?

¹⁵ And for this end he is the Mediator of a new covenant, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.¹⁶ For where a testament is, there must also necessarily be the death of the testator.¹⁷ For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength while the testator liveth.¹⁸ Whence neither was the first testament consecrated without blood.¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken all the commandment according to the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wooll, and hyssop, and the book itself,²⁰ and sprinkled all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament, which God hath enjoined unto you.²¹ And in like manner he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the service.²² And almost all things are according to the law purified with blood, and withoutshedding of blood there is no remission.

²³ It was therefore necessary, that the patterns of things in heaven should be purified by these, but the heavenly things themselves by better sacrifices than these.²⁴ For Christ did not enter into the holy place made with hands, the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.²⁵ Nor did he enter, that he might offer himself often (as the high-priest entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others.)²⁶ For then he must often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the consummation of the ages hath he been manifested, to abolish sin by the sacrifice of himself.²⁷ And as it is appointed for men once to die, and after this the judgment:²⁸ So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, will appear the second time, without sin, to them that look for him, unto salvation.