§ 101. The Congregationalists.
Literature.
I. English Congregationalism.
See the sources of the Westminster Assembly, and the historical works of Neal, Stoughton, and others mentioned in §§ 92, 93, and 94.
John Robinson (Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers in Leyden, d. 1626): Works, with Memoir by Robert Ashton. London, 1851, 3 vols.
The Grand Debate concerning Presbytery and Episcopacy in the Westminster Assembly (Lond. 1652).
The works of Drs. Goodwin, Owen, Howe, and other patriarchs of Independency.
Benjamin Brook: The Lives of the Puritans from Queen Elizabeth to 1662. London, 1813, 3 vols.
Benjamin Hanbury: Historical Memorials relating to the Independents or Congregationalists, from their Rise to the Restoration of the Monarchy, A.D. 1660. London (Congreg. Union of England and Wales), 1839-1844, 3 vols.
Jos. Fletcher: History of Independency in England since the Reformation. London, 1847-1849, 4 vols.
George Punchard (of Boston): History of Congregationalism from about A.D. 250 to the Present Time. 2d ed. rewritten and enlarged, New York and Boston (Hurd & Houghton), 1865-81, 5 vols. (The first two vols. are irrelevant.)
John Waddington: Congregational History, 1200-1567. London, 1869-78, 4 vols. Second volume from 1567 to 1700, Lond. 1874. (See a searching and damaging review of this work by Dr. Dexter in the "Congreg. Quarterly" for July, 1874, Vol. XVI. pp. 420 sqq.)
Herbert S. Skeats: A History of the Free Churches of England from l688 to l851. London, 1867; 2d. ed. 1860.
II. American Congregationalism.
(1) Sources.
The works of John Robinson, above quoted, especially his Justification of Separation from the Church of England (1610, printed in 1639).
John Cotton (of Boston, England, and then of Boston, Mass.): The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England. Or the Way of Churches Walking in Brotherly Equality or Co-ordination, without Subjection of one Church to another. Measured by the Golden Reed of the Sanctuary. London, 1645. By the same: The Way of Congregational Churches cleared (against Baillie and Rutherford). London, 1648.
Thomas Hooker (of Hartford, Conn.): A Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline. London, 1648.
Robinson, Cotton, and Hooker are the connecting links between English Independency and American Congregationalism. Their rare pamphlets (wretchedly printed, like most works during the period of the civil wars, from want of good type and paper) are mostly found in the Congregational Library at Boston, and ought to be republished in collected form.
Alexander Young: Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth, from 1602 to 1628. Boston, 1841.
Alexander Young: Chronicles of the first Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. From 1623 to 1636. Boston, 1846.
George B. Cheever: The Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in New England, in 1620; reprinted from the original volume, with illustrations. New York, 1848.
Nathanael Morton (Secretary to the Court for the Jurisdiction of New Plymouth): New England's Memorial. Boston, 1855 (6th ed. Congreg. Board of Publication). Reprints of Memorial of 1669, Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony, etc.
(2) Histories.
Benjamin Trumbull, D.D.: A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical, from the Emigration of its first Planters, from England, in the year 1630, to the year 1764. New Haven, 1818, 2 vols.
Leonard Bacon: Thirteen Historical Discourses, on the Completion of Two Hundred Years from the Beginning of the First Church in Sew Haven. New Haven, 1839.
Joseph B. Felt: The Ecclesiastical History of New England; comprising not only Religious, but also Moral and other Relations. Boston, Mass. (Congregational Library Association), 1855-1862, 2 vols.
Joseph S. Clark: A Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts from 1620 to 1858. Boston, 1858.
Memorial of the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Founding of the Theological Seminary at Andover. Andover, Mass. 1859.
Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut; prepared under the Direction of the General Association to Commemorate the Completion of One Hundred and Fifty Years since its First Annual Assembly. New Haven (publ. by Wm. L. Kingsley), 1861.
Daniel Appleton White: New England Congregationalism in its Origin and Purity; Illustrated by the Foundation and Early Records of the First Church in Salem [Mass.]. Salem, 1861. Comp. Reply to the above, by Joseph B. Felt. Salem, 1861.
The first vols. of G. Bancroft's History of the United States (begun in 1834); last ed. 1876, 6 vols.
John Gorham Palfrey: History of New England. Boston, 1859-1874, 4 vols.
Leonard Bacon: The Genesis of the New England Churches. New York, 1874.
Henry Martyn Dexter: As to Roger Williams and his 'Banishment' from the Massachusetts Plantation; with a few further Words concerning the Baptists, the Quakers, and Religious Liberty. Boston, 1876 (Congregational Publishing Society). A vindication of the Massachusetts Colony against the charge of intolerance.
Numerous essays and reviews relating to the Congregational polity and doctrine and the history of Congregational Churches may be found in the volumes of the following periodicals:
American Quarterly Register. Boston, Mass. 1827-1843, 15 vols.
The Christian Spectator. 1st series monthly; 2d series quarterly. New Haven, 1819-1838, 20 vols.
The New-Englander, quarterly (continued). New Haven, 1843-1876, 34 vols.
The Congregational Quarterly (continued). Boston, Mass. 1st series, 1859-1868, 10 vols.; 2d series, 1869-1876, 8 vols.
The Congregational Year-Book. New York, 1854-1859, 5 vols.
Other light is thrown on the Congregational history and polity by Results of Councils, many of which, in cases of peculiar interest, have been published in pamphlet form.
(3) Congregational Polity.
Congregational Order. The Ancient Platforms of the Congregational Churches of New England, with a Digest of Rules and Usages in Connecticut. Publ. by direction of the General Association of Connecticut. Middletown, Conn. 1843. [Edited by Leonard Bacon, David D. Field, Timothy P. Gillet.]
Thomas C. Upham: Ratio Disciplinæ; or, The Constitution of the Congregational Churches, Examined and Deduced from Early Congregational Writers, and other Ecclesiastical Authorities, and from Usage. 2d edition. Portland, 1844.
Preston Cummings: A Dictionary of Congregational Usages and Principles according to Ancient and Modern Authors; to which are added brief Notices of some of the Principal Writers, Assemblies, and Treatises referred to in the Compilation. Boston, 1852.
George Punchard: A View of Congregationalism, its Principles and Doctrines; the Testimony of Ecclesiastical History in its Favor, its Practice, and its Advantages. [1st edition, 1840.] Third edition, revised and enlarged. Boston (Congreg. Board of Publication), 1856.
Henry Martyn Dexter: Congregationalism: What it is; Whence it is; How it Works; Why it is Better than any other Form of Church Government. Boston, 1865; 5th ed. revised, 1879.
Congregationalism has its name from the prominence it gives to the particular congregation as distinct from the general Church. [1586] It aims to establish a congregation of real believers or converts, and it declares such a congregation to be independent of outward jurisdiction, whether it be that of a king or a bishop or a presbytery. Under the first aspect it has several precedents; under the latter aspect it forms a new chapter in Church history, or at least it carries the protest against foreign jurisdiction a great deal farther than the Reformers, who protested against the tyrannical authority of the papacy, but recognized some governmental jurisdiction over local congregations.