CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM, the system of church discipline agreed upon by the representatives of the New England churches at the synod held in Cambridge in 1648. In regard to doctrine they adhered substantially to the Westminster confession, though they did not impose that on the churches; but they did not accept that confession which was Presbyterian with respect to church order and polity, for regulating which they constructed the Cambridge platform, which declares that the form of church govern ment is one and immutable, and prescribed in the word of God. According to this platform, the church in general consists of the whole company of the redeemed; but the state of the visible church militant was before the law economical, or in families; under the law, national; and since Christ, only congregational, or in local companies. In number a church ought not to be greater than may ordinarily meet together conveniently in one place, nor fewer than can conveniently carry on church work. The supreme power of the church belongs to Jesus Christ, who deputes extraordinary power to apostles, etc., and ordinary power to every particular church; officers are necessary to the well-being but not to the being of a church. Extraordinary officers, as apostles, are temporary; the ordinary, which are bishops (the same as elders or pastors) and deacons, are perpetual. A deacon's official acts are confined to temporal nrairs. Any church may elect and depose its own officers, but in so doing the advice of neighboring churches should be sought. Ordination is the solemn putting a man into his office; it follows his
election. In respect to Christ, the head, the church is a monarchy; in respect to the body or the brotherhood, it is like a democracy; in respect to the presbytery, or com pany of ministers, it is an aristocracy. Synods, though not necessary to the being, are useful to the well-being of the churches; but synods are not permanent ecclesiastical bodies. It is declared that local churches are of right distinct, equal, self-governed under Christ; yet that they should be gathered and should proceed in communion with each other; which communion they are to exercise by mutual care, by consultation, by admonition, by sharing in acts of worship, by needful transfer of members, by relief and succor. Synods have not power of church-censure and discipline, but are to declare the principles on which such acts are based, and their decisions are to be submitted to if found consonant with the word of God. The platform deals also, as its date required, with the relation of civil magistrates to affairs ecclesiastical. The platform is accepted and largely followed by the con,,ssregational churches as a useful guide, and as a strong presentation of the principles of church order given in the New Testament: but its enforcement upon any church as an authoritative rule would of course be attempted in vain.