Chapter 3: On the offices of Jesus Christ; prophetic, priestly, and kingly
CHAPTER THREE. On the offices of Jesus Christ.
The office of Jesus Christ is threefold: prophetic, priestly, and kingly. Since all offices are instituted for a certain end, and therefore have the character of means to obtaining that end, we will not badly measure Christs offices by the notion of His name. He is called JESUS CHRIST by words that belong to this person by excellence, of which the former indicates the ratio of the offices that serve this end.
The word Jesus signifies savior and physician. To save is to keep safe from evils — either by preventing them from coming on, or by removing them if they have prevailed — and consequently by conferring contrary goods. The worst of evils are sin and its wages, eternal death. The best of goods are righteousness and eternal life. He is therefore Savior in the most excellent mode, because He frees from sin and eternal death and confers righteousness and life (Matthew 1:21).
The word Christ denotes the anointed, from the anointing that under the Old Testament was done with oil, which because by natural efficacy it made bodies both fragrant and agile was fit to signify two supernatural things: the consecration of a person to some divine munus, and the collation of the gifts necessary for it.
Latin
CAPUT TERTIUM, De officiis Iesu Christi. OFFICIUM Iesu Christi triplex est, propheticum, sacerdotale et regium. Cum officia omnia propter certum finem instituantur, ac proinde mediorum rationem habeant ad finem illum obtinendum, officia Christi non male ad nominis ipsius notionem exigemus. Dicitur autem IESUS CHRISTUS, vocabulis personae huic per excellentiam competentibus, quorum priore officiorum ratio ad hunc finem facientium indicatur. Vox Iesus salvatorem & medicum significat. Salvare autem est a malis tutum praestare vel curando ne ingruant, vel si invalerint auferendo, & per consequens contraria bona conferendo. Malorum pessima sunt peccatum & eius stipendium mors aeterna. Bonorum optima sunt iustitia & vita aeterna. Est igitur salvator modo excellentissimo, quia peccato & morte aeterna liberat, iustitiamque & vitam confert, Matth. 1:21. Vox Christus unctum notat, ab unctione, quae sub V.T. fiebat oleo, quod quia secundum naturalem efficaciam corpora tum fragrantia reddebat, tum agilia, commodum erat duabus rebus supernaturalibus significandis, quarum una est personae ad munus aliquod divinum obeundum consecratio, altera, donorum ad illud necessariorum collatio.