The Cambridge and Saybrook Platforms of Church Government (PDF) by Miscellaneous Ministers

by Miscellaneous Ministers

PDF VERSION

This book sets forth the Congregational discipline of the New England churches, as laid out in The Cambridge Platform and The Saybrook Platform.

The Cambridge Platform touches upon:

• the form of church government;
• the nature of the church catholic and particular
• the visible church
• the church covenant
• church power, officers, elders, and deacons
• election and ordination
• admission, recommendation, and excommunication of members
• multi-church communion, synods, and the magistrate's power in matters ecclesiastical.

The Saybrook Platform touches upon:

• churches and church members
• the ministry, censures, and communion of churches
• deacons and ruling elders
• occasional meeting of ministers
• demeanor toward the magistrate
• confession of faith
• duty toward them not in communion.

Finally, the book closes with a chapter excerpt from The Marrow of Sacred Divinity , by William Ames: Of the Church Instituted.