for if the law deliver'd by angels was put in execution, and every transgression and disobedience was justly punish'd as it deserv'd;

'tis true they of the race of Levi, who assume the office of the priesthood, have a right by law to take tithes of the people, that is, of their brethren, though they all issued from Abraham:

If therefore the Levitical priesthood, concerning which the people received a law, could have given perfection, what further need was there that another priest should rise, to be named after the order of Melchisedec, and not after the order of Aaron?

now the priesthood being changed, the law must necessarily be changed too.

who was not establish'd by virtue of a temporary law, but with the power of being a perpetual priest.

wherefore the preceeding law is abolished for its being weak and useless.

for the law made no man perfect, but this was effected by introducing a better hope, which brings us nearer to the divine presence.

as those high priests of the law were, to offer up daily sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people: having done this once for all, by offering up himself.

for the law appointed frail mortals to be high priests, but the oracle pronounc'd with an oath, which was since the law, established the son, who is crown'd with immortal perfections.

which office he could not discharge here upon earth, where priests are already establish'd, who offer gifts according to the law:

for when every precept of the law had been represented by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, wool of a scarlet dye, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book of the law and all the people,

and indeed according to the law almost every thing is purified with blood, without the effusion of which, there is no remission of sins.

For the law being only an allusion to a future dispensation that was more excellent, and not an exact imitation of such a state, cannot by the anniversary sacrifices, which are offered, entirely purify those that present themselves.

then said I, lo I come, as in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God."

after having said, "victims, oblations, holocausts, and sacrifice for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein," tho' they are all prescrib'd by the law;

he immediately adds, "lo, I come to do thy WILL, O God." he abolishes the first to establish the second:

He that by two or three witnesses was convicted of violating Moses's law, was put to death without mercy.

Wherefore, since we are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every incumbrance, and the sin which does so easily embarrass us, and let us pursue with constancy the course that is proposed to us: