Book of Common Prayer

¹⁸ For you have not come to the mount that can be touched, and to burning fire, nor yet to mist and darkness and tempest of weather, ¹⁹ neither to the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which voice the people that heard it wished away so that the message would not be spoken to them. ²⁰ For they were not able to abide that which was spoken. If a beast had touched the mountain, it was to have been stoned or thrust through with a dart. ²¹ Even so terrible was the sight that appeared, Moses said, I fear and quake!

²² But you have come to the mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the celestial Jerusalem, and to an innumerable multitude of angels, ²³ and to the congregation of the first born sons, whose names are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just and perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of the new testament, and to the sprinkling of blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel.

²⁵ See that you do not forsake him that speaks. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven – ²⁶ whose voice then shook the earth, and who now declares, saying: Yet once more will I shake, not the earth only, but also heaven.

²⁷ No doubt this that he says – yet once more – signifies the removal of those things that are shaken, as of things that have ended their course, so that the things which are not shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, if we receive the kingdom that is not shaken, we have grace whereby we may serve God, and please him with reverence and godly fear. ²⁹ For our God is a consuming fire.

¹⁷ And the seventy returned back again with joy, saying, Lord, even the very devils are subject to us through your name! ¹⁸ And he said to them, I saw Satan, like lightning as it were, fall down from heaven. ¹⁹ Behold, I give to you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all manner of power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. ²⁰ Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are under your power, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

²¹ At the same time, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I confess unto you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to the babes. Even so, Father, for so pleased it you. ²² All things are given me by my Father. And no man knows who the Son is except the Father, nor who the Father is except the Son, and the person to whom the Son will show him.

²³ And he turned to his disciples and said privately, Happy are the eyes that see what you see. ²⁴ For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things that you hear, and have not heard them.