Boundaries of The Church
The church itself is defined as: "a company of saints by calling, united into one body by a holy covenant, for the public worship of God, and the mutual edification of one another in the fellowship of the Lord Jesus".
Chapter 7 establishes Elders, who attend to the boundaries of the church—admitting members to fellowship, excommunicating offenders, be guides and leaders in church administration, admonish the flock when needed—and deacons, who care only for the temporal goods of the church, handling money, paying the ministers and the poor. A third category is included in this officers section, namely that "ancient widows... minister to the church in giving attendance to the sick and to give succor to them and others in the like necessities."
The church body, by vote, has the power to install officers and to depose them. The platform specifies that no higher ecclesiastical authority, nor any civil authority, has the power to choose officers.
Membership requires "a personal and public confession and declaring of God's manner of working upon the soul".
Read more about this topic: The Cambridge Platform
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—Graham Greene (1904–1991)
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“The church is a sort of hospital for men’s souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those who are taken into it live like pensioners in their Retreat or Sailor’s Snug Harbor, where you may see a row of religious cripples sitting outside in sunny weather.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)