[Sidenote: It belongs to the office of Christ, to teach morality, not as a speculation, but as a law; to forgive sins, and to teach all things whereof there is no science properly so called.] 13. The sum of our Saviour’s office was, to teach the way and all the means of salvation and eternal life. But justice and civil obedience, and observation of all the natural laws, is one of the means to salvation. Now these may be taught two ways; one, as _theorems_, by the way of natural reason, by drawing right and the natural laws from human principles and contracts; and this doctrine thus delivered, is subject to the censure of civil powers. The other, as laws, by divine authority, in showing the will of God to be such; and thus to teach, belongs only to him to whom the will of God is supernaturally known, that is to say, to Christ. Secondly, it belonged to the office of Christ to forgive sins to the penitent; for that was necessary for the salvation of men who had already sinned. Neither could it be done by any other. For remission of sins follows not repentance naturally, as a debt; but it depends, as a free gift, on the will of God supernaturally to be revealed. Thirdly, it belongs to the office of Christ to teach all those commandments of God, whether concerning his worship, or those points of faith which cannot be understood by natural reason, but only by revelation; of which nature are those, _that he was the Christ_; _that his kingdom was not terrestrial, but celestial_; _that there are rewards and punishments after this life_; _that the soul is immortal_; _that there should be such, and so many sacraments_; and the like. [Sidenote: A distinction of things temporal from spiritual.]