Propterea abundantius oportet observare nos ea quæ audivimus, ne forte pereffluamus.

Therefore ought we more diligently to observe the things which we have heard, lest perhaps we should let them slip.

More firmly, then, than ever must we hold to the truths which have now come to our hearing, and run no risk of drifting away from them.

Si enim qui per angelos dictus est sermo, factus est firmus, et omnis prævaricatio, et inobedientia accepit justam mercedis retributionem:

For if the word, spoken by angels, became steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward:

The old law, which only had angels for its spokesmen, was none the less valid; every transgression of it, every refusal to listen to it, incurred just retribution;

quomodo nos effugiemus si tantam neglexerimus salutem? quæ cum initium accepisset enarrari per Dominum ab eis, qui audierunt, in nos confirmata est,

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? which having begun to be declared by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.

and what excuse shall we have, if we pay no heed to such a message of salvation as has been given to us? One which was delivered in the first instance by the Lord himself, and has been guaranteed to us by those who heard it from his own lips?

contestante Deo signis et portentis, et variis virtutibus, et Spiritus Sancti distributionibus secundum suam voluntatem.

God also bearing them witness by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.

One which God himself has attested by signs and portents, manifesting his power so variously, and distributing the gifts of his Holy Spirit wherever he would?

Non enim angelis subjecit Deus orbem terræ futurum, de quo loquimur.

For God hath not subjected unto angels the world to come, whereof we speak.

We are speaking of a world that is to come; to whom has God entrusted the ordering of that world? Not to angels.

Testatus est autem in quodam loco quis, dicens: Quid est homo quod memor es ejus, aut filius hominis quoniam visitas eum?

But one in a certain place hath testified, saying: What is man, that thou art mindful of him: or the son of man, that thou visitest him?

We are assured of that, in a passage where the writer says, What is man, that thou shouldst remember him? What is the son of man, that thou shouldst care for him?

Minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis: gloria et honore coronasti eum: et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuarum.

Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels: thou hast crowned him with glory and honour, and hast set him over the works of thy hands:

Man, whom thou hast made a little lower than the angels, whom thou hast crowned with glory and honour, setting him in authority over the works of thy hands?

Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus. In eo enim quod omnia ei subjecit, nihil dimisit non subjectum ei. Nunc autem necdum videmus omnia subjecta ei.

Thou hast subjected all things under his feet. For in that he hath subjected all things to him, he left nothing not subject to him. But now we see not as yet all things subject to him.

Thou hast made all things subject at his feet. Observe, he has subjected all things to him, left nothing unsubdued. And what do we see now? Not all things subject to him as yet.

Eum autem, qui modico quam angeli minoratus est, videmus Jesum propter passionem mortis, gloria et honore coronatum: ut, gratia Dei, pro omnibus gustaret mortem.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour: that, through the grace of God, he might taste death for all.

But we can see this; we can see one who was made a little lower than the angels, I mean Jesus, crowned, now, with glory and honour because of the death he underwent; in God’s gracious design he was to taste death, and taste it on behalf of all.

Decebat enim eum, propter quem omnia, et per quem omnia, qui multos filios in gloriam adduxerat, auctorem salutis eorum per passionem consummare.

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, who had brought many children into glory, to perfect the author of their salvation, by his passion.

God is the last end of all things, the first beginning of all things; and it befitted his majesty that, in summoning all those sons of his to glory, he should crown with suffering the life of that Prince who was to lead them into salvation.

Qui enim sanctificat, et qui sanctificantur, ex uno omnes. Propter quam causam non confunditur fratres eos vocare, dicens:

For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying:

The Son who sanctifies and the sons who are sanctified have a common origin, all of them; he is not ashamed, then, to own them as his brethren.

Nuntiabo nomen tuum fratribus meis: in medio ecclesiæ laudabo te.

I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the church will I praise thee.

I will proclaim thy renown, he says, to my brethren; with the church around me I will praise thee;

Et iterum: Ego ero fidens in eum. Et iterum: Ecce ego, et pueri mei, quos dedit mihi Deus.

And again: I will put my trust in him. And again: Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me.

and elsewhere he says, I will put my trust in him, and then, Here stand I, and the children God has given me.

Quia ergo pueri communicaverunt carni, et sanguini, et ipse similiter participavit eisdem: ut per mortem destrueret eum qui habebat mortis imperium, id est, diabolum:

Therefore because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner hath been partaker of the same: that, through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil:

And since these children have a common inheritance of flesh and blood, he too shared that inheritance with them. By his death he would depose the prince of death, that is, the devil;

et liberaret eos qui timore mortis per totam vitam obnoxii erant servituti.

And might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.

he would deliver those multitudes who lived all the while as slaves, made over to the fear of death.

Nusquam enim angelos apprehendit, sed semen Abrahæ apprehendit.

For no where doth he take hold of the angels: but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold.

After all, he does not make himself the angels’ champion, no sign of that; it is the sons of Abraham that he champions.

Unde debuit per omnia fratribus similari, ut misericors fieret, et fidelis pontifex ad Deum, ut repropitiaret delicta populi.

Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that he might be a propitiation for the sins of the people.

And so he must needs become altogether like his brethren; he would be a high priest who could feel for us and be our true representative before God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

In eo enim, in quo passus est ipse et tentatus, potens est et eis, qui tentantur, auxiliari.

For in that, wherein he himself hath suffered and been tempted, he is able to succour them also that are tempted.

It is because he himself has been tried by suffering, that he has power to help us in the trials we undergo.