In the Church of England, there are Archbishops, Deans, and various other officers and titles of office; but these are of local authority, and do not interfere with the three Divinely-appointed orders. To use the language of Hooker, “I may securely, therefore, conclude, that there are, at this day, in the Church of England, no other than the same degrees of ecclesiastical orders, namely, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, which had their beginning from Christ and His blessed Apostles themselves. As for Deans, Prebendaries, Parsons, Vicars, Curates, Archdeacons, and such like names, being not found in the Scriptures, we have been thereby, through some men’s errors, thought to allow ecclesiastical degrees not known nor ever heard of in the better ages of former times. All these are in truth but titles of office,” admitted “as the state of the Church doth need, degrees of order still remaining the same as they were from the beginning.”
Two hundred years ago, Hooker gave the following challenge, which has never yet been accepted:—“We require you to find but one Church upon the face of the whole earth that hath not been ordered by Episcopal regiment since the time that the blessed Apostles were here conversant.” And though, says Bishop Doane, departures from it, since the time of which he spoke, have been but too frequent and too great, “Episcopal regiment” is still maintained as Christ’s ordinance, for the perpetuation and government of his Church, and is received as such by eleven twelfths of the whole Christian world. For a period of fifteen hundred years after the Apostolic age, ordination by Presbyters was totally unknown, except in a few crooked cases, where the attempt was made, and followed by instant condemnation from the Church, and the declaration that they were utterly null and void. There was no ministry in existence, before the era of the Reformation, but that which had come down direct from the Apostles, that is, the Episcopal. This is admitted by nearly all the opponents of Episcopacy.
The Episcopal Church in the United States, agrees with that of England, in doctrine, discipline, and worship, with some few unessential variations. Their Ritual, or Form of Worship, is the same, except that some few parts have been omitted for the sake of shortening the service, or for other reasons. Changes became necessary in the prayers for Rulers, in consequence of the independence of the United States.