may be said in favour of Hooker's proposal, namely, that the use of
ancient Councils be renewed, that a deep and universal sense of the
abuse of Councils progressively from the Nicene to that of Trent, and
our knowledge of the causes, occasions, and mode of such abuse, are so
far presumptive for its non-recurrency as to render it less probable
that honest men will pervert them from ignorance, and more difficult for
unprincipled men to do so designedly. Something too must be allowed for
an honourable ambition on the part of the persons so assembled, to
disappoint the general expectation, and win for themselves the unique
title of the honest Council. But still comes the argument, the blow of
which I might more easily blunt than parry, that if Roman Catholic and
Protestant, or even Protestant Episcopalian and Protestant Presbyterian
divines were generally wise and charitable enough to form a Christian
General Council, there would be no need of one.

N.B. The reasoning in this note, as far as it is in discouragement of a
recurrence to general Councils, does not, 'me saltem judice', conclude
against the suffering our Convocation to meet. The virtual abrogation of
this branch of our constitution I have long regarded as one of three or
four Whig patriotisms, that have succeeded in de-anglicizing the mind of
England.


Ib. c. xi. 4. p. 323.

So that nature even in this life doth plainly claim and call for a
more divine perfection than either of these two that have been
mentioned.