[SeeSharp]

Though certainly Calvinist, most of the New England Puritans were Congregationalists, not Presbyterians. Furthermore, there was a profound ideological difference between the Calvinism of New England and that of the middle and southern colonies in that Puritan Congregationalism was deeply platonistic.

[Christian_Capitalist]

I think that Boettner's focusing more on the denomination which did most of the fighting and dying for American liberty, that being the Presbyterians.

So intense, universal, and aggressive were the Presbyterians in their zeal for liberty that the war was spoken of in England as "The Presbyterian Rebellion." An ardent colonial supporter of King George III wrote home: "I fix all the blame for these extraordinary proceedings upon the Presbyterians. They have been the chief and principal instruments in all these flaming measures. They always do and ever will act against government from that restless and turbulent anti-monarchial spirit which has always distinguished them everywhere." When the news of "these extraordinary proceedings" reached England, Prime Minister Horace Walpole said in Parliament, "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson" (John Witherspoon, president of Princeton, signer of Declaration of Independence).

J. R. Sizoo tells us: "When Cornwallis was driven back to ultimate retreat and surrender at Yorktown, all of the colonels of the Colonial Army but one were Presbyterian elders. More than one-half of all the soldiers and officers of the American Army during the Revolution were Presbyterians."

No doubt the Congregationalists helped; but in the main, it was a "Presbyterian Rebellion".

[Persevero]

True, Penn was hardly a Presbyterian, either. Calvinists are not necessarily Presbyterians (more’s the pity :) )

[MondoQueen]

I think the Pilgrims were Congregationalist.
The Puritans who settled in Boston about l0 years after the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth had a different view of organized religion, and I believe they brought with them the Presbyterian Church.

Correct me if I’m wrong.