There are three modes of church government, viz., the Episcopalian, from the Latin word episcopus, signifying bishop; the Presbyterian, from the Greek word presbuteros, signifying senior, elder, or presbyter; and the Congregational or Independent mode. Under one of these forms, or by a mixture of their several peculiarities, every church in the Christian world is governed. The Episcopal form is the most extensive, as it embraces the Catholic, Greek, English, Methodist, and Moravian churches.

Episcopalians have three orders in the ministry, viz., bishops, priests, and deacons; they all have liturgies, longer or shorter, which they either statedly or occasionally use. All Episcopalians believe in the existence and the necessity of an apostolic succession of bishops, by whom alone regular and valid ordinations can be performed.

The Presbyterians believe that the authority of their ministers to preach the gospel and to administer the sacraments is derived from the Holy Ghost, by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery. They affirm, however, that there is no order in the church, as established by Christ and his apostles, superior to that of presbyters; that all ministers, being ambassadors of Christ, are equal by their commission; that presbyter and bishop, though different words, are of the same import; and that prelacy was gradually established upon the primitive practice of making the moderator, or speaker of the presbytery, a permanent officer.

The Congregationalists, or Independents, are so called from their maintaining that each congregation of Christians, which meets in one house for public worship, is a complete church, has sufficient power to act and perform every thing relating to religious government within itself, and is in no respect subject or accountable to other churches.

Independents, or Congregationalists, generally ordain their ministers by a council of ministers called for the purpose: but still they hold that the essence of ordination lies in the voluntary choice and call of the people, and that public ordination is no other than a declaration of that call.