Massachusetts Bay Colony Cambridge Platform (1648) recorded in the Plymouth Colony Records IX, 1663, listed the proposal of William Vassall and others:
<1. CHAP: XVII: Of The Civil Magistrates power in Matters Ecclesiastical...It is lawfull, profitable, & necessary for christians to gather themselves into Church estate, and therein to exercise all the ordinances of Christ according unto the word,..because the Apostles & Christians in their time did frequently thus practise, when the Magistrates being all of them Jewish or pagan, & mostly persecuting enemies, would give no countenance or consent to such matters.
2. Church-government stands in no opposition to civil government of commonwealths, nor any intrencheth upon the authority of civil Magistrates in their jurisdictions; nor any wit weakeneth their hands in governing; but rather strengthneth them, & furthereth the people in yielding more hearty and conscionable obedience unto them, whatsoever some ill affected persons to the wayes of Christ have suggested to alienate the affections of Kings & Princes from the ordinences of Christ; as if the kingdome of Christ in his church could not rise & stand, without the falling and weakening of their government, which is also of Christ: whereas the contrary is most true, that they may both stand together & flourish the one being helpful to the other, in distinct and due administrations.
3. The power & authority of Magistrates is not for the restraining of churches, or any other good workes, but for helping in and furthering therof; & therfore the consent & contenance of Magistrates when it may be had, is not to be slighted, or lightly esteemed; but on the contrary; it is part of that honour due to christian Magistrates to desire & crave their consent & approbation therin: which being obtayned, the churches may then proceed in their way with much more encouragement, & comfort.
4. It is not in the power of Magistrates to compell their subjects to become churchmembers, & to partake at the Lord's table:...Those whom the church is to cast out of they were in, the Magistrates ought not to thrust into the church, nor to hold them therin.
5 As it is unlawful for church-officers to meddle with the sword of the Magistrates, so is it unlawfull for the Magistrates to meddle with the work proper to church-officers...
6. It is the duty of the Magistrate, to take care of matters of religion, & to improve his civil authority for the observing of the duties commanded in the first, as well as for observing the duties commanded in the second table...
7. Idolatry, Blasphemy, Heresy, venting corrupt & pernicious opinions, that destroy the foundation, open contempt of the word preached, prophanation of the Lord's day, disturbing the peaceable administration & exercise of the worship & holy things of God, & the like, are to be restrayned, & punished by civil authority.
8. If any church one or more shall grow schismaticall, rending it self from the communion of other churched, or shall walke incorrigibly or obstinately in any corrupt way of their own, contrary to the rule of the word; in such a case, the Magistrate is to put forth his coercive powr, as the matter shall require. The tribes on this side Jordan intended to make warr against the other tribes, for building the altar of witness, whom they suspected to have turned away therin from following of the Lord. Finis.> 1648MB001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1648MB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Massachusetts Bay Colony Cambridge Platform, 1648, included the proposal of William Vassall and others, as recorded in the Plymouth Colony Records IX, 1663. Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 2 vols. (NY: F.S. Crofts and Company, 1934; Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1948, 6th edition, 1958; Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 9th edition, 1973), Vol. I, pp. 29-31. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. 1, pp. 90-94.