To which first is our minde, and by consequence our flesh, ioyned, to the word or to the flesh?
First we are vnited to the flesh by faith: and then,* 1.1 by the flesh to his Deitie. 1 Because as the scripture doth set forth Christ to vs, first as man, and then as God, so first and sooner we know, apprehend and vnderstand him as man, then as Goda 1.2, as Isaiah. 7.14. where first it is said: Behold the virgin shall conceiue and beare a sonne, and 2. he shall be called Immanuell. So the Euangelists and A∣postles doe set forth Christ vnto vs, first as man, and then as God.
2 Because like as wee are not vnited to God, but by a Medi∣atour, so neither to the Godhead of Christ, but by his flesh, in which hee performed the chiefe offices of a Mediatour. For in his flesh was made redemption, sinne destroyed, the diuell conque∣red, death ouercome,, eternall life, and saluation obtained: and the life which wholy flowed from the fulnesse of Christs God∣head, as it were from a fountaine, is not deriued into vs, but in the flesh & by the flesh of Christ, as it were a pipe or instrument, but yet inse••arably taken from the godhead by the vnitie of persona 1.3, As by one man commeth sinne. So by one man, righteousnesse hath abounded. Iohn. 6.53. Except ye eate the flesh of the sonne of man, ye haue no life in you. Vnlesse therefore a man doe lay hold vpon this pipe, and be vnited to it: truely hee cannot be partaker of the waters which flow from the fountaine.
Whereupon, it behooueth vs in the exercise of faith, and pie∣tie, to fasten and fixe the eyes of our minde immediately and especially vpon the humane flesh of Iesus Christ, as it were vpon a vaile, by which an ingresse was made into sanctum sanctorum, that is, the holy of holiest, where the glorie of God shinethb 1.4, and moreouer to penetrate as it were into the sanctuarie it selfe to behold his deitie.