nderstood by the visible Church of God.
They have no ministry, no worship, no administration of the
sacraments, visibly distinct from the mass of persons who are of the
same external fellowship with themselves; and the error of assigning
to them the distinction of being alone the true Church arises from
the ambiguity of the word _Church_, on which changes are rung,
producing a confusion of ideas--a double confusion of ideas,
"confusion worse confounded." What is the mental process by which
Mr. Noel arrives at this point? _First_, the invisible Church is
tacitly put and mistaken for the visible, the truly spiritual for
the nominal, it being assumed that we can know the hearts of others.
Then, _secondly_, this invisible Church is supposed to become
visible, and to be _alone_ visible, in the persons of those who
maintain the doctrines of grace; while the really external Church,
consisting of the entire body of professing Christians throughout
the world, vanishes out of sight, and is declared to have no
ecclesiastical existence! The truth is, that Calvinism and a visible
Church are incongruous ideas, and that no man, of whatever talent he
may be possessed, can make them harmonize. The Calvinist believes,
and is consistent in his belief, that the elect only are "the
Church," but since it is impossible to discriminate them from
others, it is impossible to unite them in an exclusive visible
fellowship. And, if it were possible, they would form such a Church
as never before existed. Calvinism is irreconcileable with the order
which has descended from the apostolic age, by the consent of the
Catholic Church, and with any visible constitution.

If Mr. Noel has succeeded in making converts to _his_ theory of a
visible Church, from the difficulty they find in detecting its
fallacies, it only proves, that

"Sheer no-meaning puzzles more than wit."

The dissenter who, on objecting to a Church rate, said, that "If all
Churchmen were like Mr. Noel, neither he nor his brethren would
object to join them," does not seem to have been aware that they
were already members of Mr. Noel's Church. Or, what is more
probable, it was designed significantly to hint to that reverend
gentleman, that he was no more attached than themselves to the
Church of which he is a pastor, and whose ordination vows are upon
him,--and that with Churchmen who are prepared so to betray or deny
their Church, under an erroneous sense of duty, dissenters may
wi