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ART. VII.-The Problem, 'What is the Church? solved. Ekéfis περὶ τοῦ τί ἦν εἶναι τῆς Ἐκκλησίας or, The Counter Theory. Oxford and London: John Henry Parker. 1853.

WE do not, in general, begin with theory. Facts come first, and theory afterwards, although we can hardly state facts without involving a theory. It would be a curious and interesting task to examine the positive philosophy' of this day, and see how much theory is involved in its elementary assumptions; and it would be scarce too bold to say, that as long as we generalize at all, we cannot wholly escape the presupposition of some theory or other. In matters of religion it is certainly impossible. Not only in the description of facts, but in the very apprehension and primary estimation of them, a view or notion comes in which involves the assumption of a principle sufficient to determine and imply an extensive theory. Yet possibly this may be the way in which we were intended to become acquainted with the facts, rather than by first acquiring the knowledge of a theory, and then applying it. We may have been meant to see features, characteristics, indications, first, and by estimating them roughly, and grouping them as we were able, gradually to become aware of a pervading system, and to perceive something like a rationale of the spiritual facts which surround us. In this process, our apprehension of facts will be somewhat modified by the gradual development and clearing of our theoretic views, but ought not at any time to be wholly reconstructed upon a theoretic basis.

Dr. Newman's Theory of Development has too much of the latter character, and has, accordingly, proved satisfactory to no very great number of minds. It is not the theory which Romanism had gradually worked out and stereotyped for itself, nor even an improvement upon that theory, but a new foundation, perilous to insert under the cupola of S. Peter's. Still, to us who view the Roman system from without, the substitution might be thought to offer a chance of conviction, enabling obnoxious facts to take a more plausible shape and arrangement, and grounding them on principles which seemed partly at least of iron, though partly also of'miry clay.' The moral and logical necessity of development formed a strong framework to enclose and hide the unsound foundation of assumed premises, and to hold together the unburnt brickwork of questionable conclusions. The work was a bold and a great effort, the best defence that could be made for a really false step; right in the main if that step was

right, but if not, wrong, and only the more wholly wrong, the more complete in its extent, and the more ingenious in its texture. On the whole, it was the man, and not the book, that carried off a train of converts.

Nevertheless there was a certain impression that something had been said that was a sufficient account of the Roman facts; and people who did not very deeply examine into particulars, could yet accept a general theory of development as offering a convenient solution for all imaginable difficulties. And unsatisfactory as it is to most of us, the whole system certainly did appear to approve itself to some minds, and to afford them satisfaction where they had doubted, and perhaps even conviction where they had questioned or opposed. It was, at least, a theory of what many of us had regarded as wholly irrational and unaccountable, and it must be allowed that a true system must be capable of a theory. This is true, although it is not equally certain that we must be able to discover that theory. So far as it went, Dr. Newman's work was a step towards establishing the point, that some theory at least could be given for Romanism, and thus far it was a step toward giving advantage to Romanism above Anglicanism with those who could find no satisfactory theory of Anglicanism.

The author of The Counter Theory' was not, he says, even then, one of those who wanted a theory to oppose to this formidable demonstration. While he admits, however, that some answers of more or less weight have been given, he attributes to them in general a negative character, and desiderates, up to the time of the publication of his own work, a complete and positive statement, which could be placed parallel to the Theory of Development,' as the truth which was to supplant and supersede it. As, however, he professes to have only brought out and elaborated the view which was then already clear to his own mind, so he must allow others to remark, that his originality is rather to be found in grouping and in detail than in his main theory. And he may not hereafter be sorry to find, in ancient writers, as well as in modern, somewhat more of his own principles than he has hitherto acknowledged. He writes sometimes almost as if he had had a new revelation, while he is expressing truths which have certainly been revealed to others before him.

Dr. Moberly's preface, and a well-remembered, though hitherto unpublished sermon of Dr. Pusey's on Unity, may be quoted as instances in which positive views have been distinctly brought forward, and that very much in accordance with the present writer's analogies. And, amongst ancient writers, he has hardly done justice to S. Justin Martyr and S. Clement of Alexandria, who both of them hold the leading principles of his general theory of

the history of man. S. Justin clearly acknowledges the extent of the patriarchal dispensation as including the pious heathen, and S. Clement no less clearly acknowledges the Divine Word as the Educator of universal humanity, and sketches out the periods of relative infancy with reference to the maturity of the Gospel, and that of the future estate of the blessed.

'Since, then, we have shown that we all are called children by the Scripture, and not only so, but that we who have followed Christ are allegorically represented as infants, while the Father of all alone is perfect, (for in Him is the Son, and in the Son the Father,) it is time for us, following due order, to declare who is the Guide of our childhood. He is called Jesus. Sometimes He calls himself a Shepherd, and says, "I am the good Shepherd;"1 He who guides us children, being conceived of as the Shepherd in charge of infants, by a metaphor from the shepherds of sheep, since infants are simple, like the sheep who represent them in allegory. "And they shall be," He says, "all one flock, and there shall be one shepherd." The Word, then, is fitly called the Guide of our childhood (Haidaywyós), who is guiding us children to salvation. Most plainly, at any rate, the Word said of Himself by Hosea, "I am your chastener." 2 But religion is the guiding of our childhood, being a learning of the service of God, and an instruction toward the knowledge of the truth. And it is a right guiding, as it leads us up to heaven.

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'But the Guide of our childhood, the Holy and Divine Jesus, the Word, who is the Leader of the whole human race, the Very God who loveth man, it is who guideth us. And the Holy Spirit saith of Him somewhere in the song, "He sustained the people in the wilderness, in the thirst of the burning heat, in the land without water. He encircled him, and instructed him, and kept him as the apple of an eye, as an eagle hovereth over her young ones; and He brooded anxiously over His young ones. He spread His wings and received them, and took them up upon His shoulders. The Lord alone led them, and there was no strange god with them." Clearly, I think, the Scripture indicates the Guide of childhood, by describing His leading. Again, when He speaks in His own person, He confesses Himself the Guide of childhood. "I am the Lord thy God, who led thee out of the land of Egypt.' "4 Who, then, hath authority to lead in and out? Is it not the children's Guide? He it was who appeared to Abraham, and said to him, "I am thy God, walk before Me." And him, in most tutorial wise, He prepareth to be a faithful child, saying, “ And be thou perfect. And I will put My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed." Here is the com

munion of a friendship watching over him. And of Jacob He most evidently appeareth to be the Guide, as of a child; for He saith to him, "Behold I am with thee, keeping thee in all thy way whithersoever thou goest; and I will bring thee back into this land, because I will not forsake thee, till I have done all that I spake unto thee." And with him, also, He is said to wrestle. "Jacob," it says, was left alone, and there wrestled a Man with him" (the Guide of his childhood) "until the morning." This Man was He that led and carried, who joined in his exercise, and anointed the practised wrestler, Jacob, against the evil one.

And to show at once that the Word was at once the Trainer for Jacob, and the EDUCATOR OF HUMANITY (Παιδαγωγὸς τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος), “ he asked Him, and said unto Him, Tell me Thy name. And He said, Wherefore askest thou after My name?"8 For He was reserving the new name for

1 John x. 11, 16.
4 Exod. xx. 2.
7 Gen. xxxii. 24.

2 Hosea v. 2.
5 Gen. xvii. 1, 2.

s Ib. v. 29.

3 Deut. xxxii. 10, sqq. 6 Gen. xxviii. 15.

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the new, the infant people. And the Lord God was still without a name, not having yet become man. Nevertheless, "Jacob called the name of that place "The form of God; for I saw God," he said, "face to face, and my life was saved." But the face of God is the Word, by whom God is brought to light and made known. Then also he was named Israel, when he saw the Lord God. This is God, the Word, the Guide of childhood, who said to him again afterward, “Fear not to go down into Egypt." 2 Behold how the Educator accompanies the righteous man, and how He trains the wrestler, teaching him to trip up the heels of the adversary.

This, at any rate, is the same who also taught Moses to be a guide of childhood; for the Lord saith, "If any man hath sinned before Me, I will blot him out of My book. But now go thou, and lead this people by the way into the place of which I told thee."3 Here He is teaching him the guiding of children; for the Lord was in truth, through Moses, the Guide of childhood to the ancient people, and by Himself the Leader of the new people, face to face. For "behold," He saith to Moses, "Mine angel goeth before thee," when He set over him the evangelising and leading power of the Word, but reserved the dignity of the Lord; "but in the day that I visit," He saith, "I will bring their sin upon them;" that is, in the day when I shall sit as Judge, I will give them back the due reward of their sins. For one and the same, as Educator and Judge, He judgeth those who have disobeyed Him. But the Word, who loveth man, is not silent as to the sin, but reproveth it, that they may repent. For "the Lord will have the repentance of the sinner, rather than his death." 4 But let us, having learned the sins of others as infants, by way of hearing, for fear of the threat, lest we suffer the like, abstain from the like offences. What, then, was it that they offended? That "in their anger they slew men, and in their rage they hamstrung a bull: cursed is their anger." 195 Who, then, would instruct us with greater kindness?

'First, then, for the elder people, there was the elder covenant; and the law educated the people with fear, and the Word was an angel. But for the fresh and new people, there has been a fresh and new covenant given; and the Word has come into the world, and fear has been turned into love, and that mystical angel Jesus is brought forth. For this one and the same Guide of childhood said then, "Thou shalt fear the Lord God;" but us He exhorted, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." For this cause also He commandeth us, "Cease from your works "—your old sins; "learn to do well; decline from evil, and do good.' "18 "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity." This is My new covenant, engraven in the old letter. The newness of the Word, then, is not to be made a reproach; but the Lord saith in Jeremiah, "Say not, I am too young. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee."10 That the prophecy may mean allegorically of us, who, before the foundation of the world, were known of God unto faith, but now are infants, because of the recently fulfilled will of God, even as we have been newly born unto calling and salvation. Wherefore also He saith, "I have made thee a prophet unto the nations," saying that he must prophesy, that they should not think the name of the younger a reproach to those who are called infants.

'But the law is ancient grace, given through Moses by the Word. Wherefore also the Scripture saith, "The law was given through Moses,"12 not by Moses, but by the Word, and through Moses His servant. Wherefore, also,

1 Gen. xxxii. 30. Ezek. xviii. 23, 32.

7 Matt. xxii. 37. 10 Jer. i. 7.

2 Gen. xlvi. 3.

5 Gen. xlix. 6.

8 Is. i. 16.

11 Ib. v. 5.

3 Exod. xxxii. 33, 34. Deut. vi. 2.

9 Ps. xlv. 7. 12 John i. 17.

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it was but for a season, but the eternal "grace and truth came to be by Jesus Christ." Observe the expressions of the Scripture. Of the law it saith only, was given;" but the truth, being the grace of the Father, is the eternal work of the Word. And it is no longer said to be given, but to "come to be" by Jesus, "without" Whom "nothing was made." Moses, at any rate, at once giving way prophetically to the Word, the perfect Educator, foretells both the name and the educating, and setteth before the people their Educator, placing in their hands commandments of obedience. "God shall raise up unto you," he saith, "a Prophet like unto me, from among your brethren," signifying Jesus the Son of Man, because of Jesus the Son of God. For the name of Jesus, proclaimed before in the law, was a foreshadowing of the Lord. He adds, in fact, counselling the people for their good, "Him shall ye hear." And the man that will not hear that Prophet, "him he threateneth." Such is the name he prophesieth to us of the saving Educator. For this cause, prophecy invests Him with a rod,- —a rod of instruction, of rule, of authority, that those whom the persuasive Word healeth not, threatening may heal; and those whom threatening healeth not, the rod may heal; and those whom the rod healeth not, the fire consumeth. "A rod," it saith, "shall spring up from the root of Jesse." 3 Observe at once the care, and the wisdom, and the power of the Educator. "Not according to the appearance," it saith, "shall He judge, nor according to the speech shall He convict. But He shall execute judg ment for the humble, and shall convict the sinners of the earth."4 And by David, "In chastising, the Lord chastised me, and delivered me not over unto death." For to be chastised by the Lord, and guided as a child, is escape from death. And by the same prophet He saith, "Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron." By this, also, the Apostle was moved, when he said in the Epistle to the Corinthians, "What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of gentleness?" But, also, "The rod of Thy power," he saith, by another prophet, "shall the Lord send forth out of Zion;" but this educating "rod" of Thine, "and Thy staff comforted me," saith another. This is the venerable, the comforting, the saving power of the GUIDE OF CHILDHOOD.' —S. Clement of Alexandria, Pædagogus, cap. vii, book i.

It is, however, none the worse for the present theory, or 'Counter Theory,' that it is not entirely new. Novelty of matter is the last praise that a divine should desire, although novelty of thought, novelty of arrangement, novelty of conception, is admissible even in divinity, and constitutes a merit of which the work before us has its full share.

A reflecting reader will be able to dispense with preliminaries, even independently of the hints thrown out in the foregoing remarks, and to find in the paragraphs now to be given a multum in parvo of the writer's theory:

I had cleared the way thus far in the investigation, when occasional glimmerings were succeeded by mid-day brightness, and the grand idea floated before my mind in overpowering brilliancy. I discovered at once

1 John i. 3.

2 Deut. xviii. 15. 5 Ps. ii. 9.

3 Is. xi. 1, 3, 4.
6 1 Cor. iv. 21.

7 Ps. cx. 2.

4 Ps. cxviii. 18. The Word translated Educator' and 'Guide of Childhood,' is the same. The reference to childhood and to guidance in the compound word, is too distinct in some places to admit of the use of the word 'Educator' throughout.