ist into
heaven through His own blood, which proves that He has obtained for us
an eternal redemption and is Mediator of a new covenant, founded on His
death (ix. 1-18).

3. The frequent entering of the high-priest into the holiest place is
contrasted with the one death of Christ and His entering heaven once.
This proves the power of His sacrifice and intercession to bring in the
better covenant and set aside the former one (ix. 25-x. 18).

I. A NEW COVENANT PROMISED THROUGH JEREMIAH.

"For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place
have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He
saith,

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah;
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth
out of the land of Egypt;
For they continued not in My covenant,
And I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
After those days, saith the Lord;
I will put My laws into their mind,
And on their heart also will I write them:
And I will be to them a God,
And they shall be to Me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen,
And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
For all shall know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And their sins will I remember no more.

In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. But
that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing
away."--HEB. viii. 7-13 (R.V.).

The more spiritual men under the dispensation of law anticipated a new
and better era. The Psalmist had spoken of another day, and prophesied
of the appearance of a Priest after the order of Melchizedek and a Son
of David Who would also be David's Lord. But Jeremiah is very bold, and
says[148] that the covenant itself on which the hope of his nation hangs
will pass away, and his dream of a more spiritual covenant, established
on better promises, will at some distant day come true. It is well to
bear in mind that this discontent with the present order lodged in the
hearts, not of the worst, but of the best an