Excerpt from The Religious History of New England: King's Chapel Lectures
The ecclesiastical forms under which the religious history of New England was begun, and through which that history long continued to unfold itself, were for the most part Congregational. Throughout the colonial period, and well down into the nineteenth century, Congregationalism was the dominant church polity, and the churches of that order remain even today the most important Protestant bodies in New England. In view of the large influence which New England has exercised upon the religious, social, and educational life of the country at large, it must be evident that, altogether apart from the intrinsic interest of the subject, a review of Congregationalism is likely to throw light upon many sides of our national history, and to reveal the working of some of the most significant forces which have ever operated within the territory of the United States.
For Congregationalism is the expression of a certain type of life and character, - self-dependent, God-fearing, industrious, capable, and highly conscientious, - the qualities on which alone enduring social and political institutions can be reared. Bishop Creighton's judgment, the judgment of a trained historian but not an ecclesiastical sympathizer, was hardly an exaggeration of the facts, when he said that Congregationalism "stamped upon the early colonies of America the severe morality and patient industry which have trained a nation."
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