35.The final re-presbyteri-anization

The final re-presbyteri-anization of Rev. Dr. John Owen Presbyterian Baxter was so impressed by words like these in Owen’s Catechism, that he wrote to him proposing union between the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians. To that, Dr. Owen himself replied (I:cix-cxxi) "I judge your proposals worthy of great consideration.... I see no reason why all the true disciples of Christ might not, upon these and the like principles, condescend in love unto the practical concord and agreement which not one of them dare deny to be their duty to aim at."

Owen himself (Works XVI:2) told several men that he could readily join with Presbytery the way it was exercised in Scotland. Moreover, historian Wodrow in his own [1716] Analecta (1842 ed. 2:263 & 2:309) records: "Blackwell tells...he had this account of Owen at his death from persons who were with him that he expressed himself very much in favour of Presbyterian Government, and said he was persuaded that Presbytery was the way to

God....

"Redpath told me...he visited Dr. Owen on his deathbed, and Presbytery and Episcopacy came to be discoursed of.... The Doctor said how he had seen his mistake as to the Independent way, and declared to him a day or two before his death that after his utmost search into the Scriptures and antiquity, he was now satisfied that Presbytery was the way Christ had appointed in His New Testament Church."