The judgment of several eminent divines of the Congregational way. Concerning a pastors power.…

Whereas it is objected, that the Pastor of another Church has no Authority by his Office to require them of another Church to Receive the Sacrament, as he may those of his own Flock; It may be replied, he has as much Power to do that, as he has to Enjoin one of another Congregation occasionally to receive, where he is not a Member. The Request of the Persons concerned doth sufficiently Empower him pro hac vice to Exert a Ministerial Act towards them.

Whereas it is objected, that the Pastor of another Church has no Authority by his Office to require them of another Church to Receive the Sacrament, as he may those of his own Flock; It may be replyed, he has as much Power to do that, as he has to Enjoyn one of another Congregation occasionally to receive, where he is not a Member. The Request of the Persons concerned doth sufficiently Empower him pro hac vice to Exert a Ministerial Act towards them.

3. In the primitive and pure Times of the Christian Church, not only the Apostles, but ordinary Pastors of Churches did occasionally Dispense the Seals in other Churches, besides those wherein they were fixed. It is the Opinion of very Learned Men, that Polycarp was the Angel of the Church in Smyrna, unto whom the Lord Jesus directed that Epistle in Revelations, chap. 2. So Paraeus, Estius, Tirinus, Menochius, &o. He was the Apostle Johns Scholar: And (as Hierom, Eusebius, and other Ecclesiastic Writers, Testify) was by the Apostles themselves Ordained the ⟨p. 5⟩Pastor of that Church. This Holy Minister is not (as most Officers in the Seven Asiatic Churches were) blamed or reproved for any Fault. Yet did the Pastor of that Church (if Polycarp was he) occasionally Administer the Lords Supper to the Christians in Rome, where there was in those Days a pure and a true Church. There was some Difference in Opinion between Anicetus the Pastor of the Church in Rome, and Polycarp Pastor of the Church at Smyrna, who undertook a long Journey from Smyrna to Rome, to Assist in composing the Differences about small matters, which in those early days threatened the Churches. Anicetus, only to Testify his Love and Honour to Polycarp, requested him to Administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to that Church, where not Polycarp but Anicetus was the Pastor. Irenaeus (Lib. 3. cap. 1.) says, that Polycarp always taught the Churches to observe those things, which he Learned from the Apostles, and nothing else. If that be so, were the Apostles here, they would allow Pastors occasionally to Exercise Ministerial Acts in other Congregations, besides those where they are fixed. See Mr. Foxes Martyrol. Vol. 1. p. 57.