esiastical polity corresponding exactly with its
own nature, and marked by its own exclusiveness; for who shall
discern the elect?

This discovery appears to have been made by an eminent Calvinistic
clergyman of the present day, who, instead of coming to the
legitimate conclusion that Calvinism is therefore untenable, as
being an impracticable system, has recourse to a delusive theory of
ecclesiastical fellowship, which confounds the visible with the
invisible Church, or reduces the former to a mere nullity. According
to _his_ view of the subject, the Church of Christ consists, not of
the collective body of persons who may happen to be in fellowship
with any particular Christian communities, nor of the aggregate of
persons who throughout the world make an outward profession of our
holy faith, but of those, and those only, who "maintain the
doctrines of grace, and uphold the authority of Christ in the
world," with whatever denomination of Christians they are in
external fellowship. These, being the truly regenerate, are to
tolerate each other's differences on minor questions, to love each
other as being one in Christ, and to co-operate in every way for the
diffusion of their common principles throughout the world. Mr.
Noel's theory confirms the statement made in this section, that
Calvinism, which it is presumed he means by "the doctrines of
grace," denies the claim of any _mixed body_ of professing
Christians, such as the Anglican, or the Lutheran, or the Scottish,
or any other church, in its aggregate character, to be _a church_,
or a distinct branch of the Catholic Church. That is, Calvinism is
opposed to the constitution and the purposes of a visible church.
Mr. Noel's theory is fatal to its existence. For, when it is said of
those exclusively, who, in whatever denomination, "maintain the
doctrines of grace,"--"_and this one body is_ the church,"--it is
clearly proveable, that these persons have no intelligible grounds
on which to rest that high and exclusive pretension; _they are not_
the visible church.

These persons may, or may not, be members of the spiritual or
_invisible_ Church; _that_ is known only to the Searcher of the
heart. They may or may not be the most holy and sincere individuals
in the several churches or denominations with which they hold
external communion; _that_ also remains to be confirmed or refuted
by "the final sentence and unalterable doom." But they do not
constitute what is commonly u