it is manifest hereby, in whom the power ecclesiastical continually remained, in those first times where there was not any Christian commonwealth; namely, in them that received the same from the apostles, by successive laying on of hands. [Sidenote: Of the Trinity.] Here we have the person of God born now the third time. For as Moses, and the high-priests, were God’s representative in the Old Testament; and our Saviour himself, as man, during his abode on earth: so the Holy Ghost, that is to say the apostles and their successors, in the office of preaching and teaching, that had received the holy Spirit, have represented him ever since. But a person, as I have shown before, (chap. XIII.) is he that is represented, as often as he is represented; and therefore God, who has been represented, that is personated, thrice, may properly enough be said to be three persons; though neither the word _Person_, nor _Trinity_, be ascribed to him in the Bible. _St. John_, indeed (_1 Epist._ v. 7) saith, _There be three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are One_. But this disagreeth not, but accordeth fitly with three persons in the proper signification of persons; which is, that which is represented by another. For so God the Father, as represented by Moses, is one person; and as represented by his Son, another person; and as represented by the apostles, and by the doctors that taught by authority from them derived, is a third person; and yet every person here, is the person of one and the same God. But a man may here ask, what it was whereof these three bear witness. _St. John_ therefore tells us (verse 11) that they bear witness, that _God hath given us eternal life in his Son_. Again, if it should be asked, wherein that testimony appeareth, the answer is easy; for he hath testified the same by the miracles he wrought, first by Moses; secondly, by his Son himself; and lastly by his apostles, that had received the Holy Spirit; all which in their times represented the person of God, and either prophecied or preached Jesus Christ. And as for the apostles, it was the character of the apostleship, in the twelve first and great apostles, to bear witness of his resurrection; as appeareth expressly (_Acts_ i. 21, 22), where St. Peter, when a new apostle was to be chosen in the place of Judas Iscariot, useth these words, _Of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst us, beginning at the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection_: which words interpret the _bearing of witness_, mentioned by St. John. There is in the same place mentioned another Trinity of witnesses in earth. For (_1 John_ v. 8) he saith, _there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree