Henry Cooke, D. D., and Arianism in the Irish Chruch [pp. 205-230]

THE
PRFSBY~ThI~IAN QUA0?ThRLY
PRINCUON I~EVIJ~W.
NEW SERIES, No. 2.-Ap~, 1872.
ART. 1.-HENRY COOKE, D. D., AND ARIANISM IN
THE IRISH CHURCH.*
By PROFESSOR LEEBoDY, Magee College, Londoiiderry, Irelaiid.
DR. HENRY COOKE, the greatest orator and controversalist,
and, in many respects, ~he greatest man which the Irish Presbyterian Church has produced for the last two hundred years,
was born in the year 1788, in the farm-house of Grillagh, near
Maghera, in Londonderry County. His ancestors were men
of true nobility, although of lowly birth. His father, John
Cooke, was descended from an English Puritan family, which
settled in the North of Ireland in the seventeenth century, and
therefore from the same stock as the God-fearing, peace4oving
men whose memory still survives in New England homes.
His mother was of Scotch descent, and could point with pride
to her Covenanting forefathers, who in defence of the truth
faced danger and death on their native hills. Of John Cooke
we know little. He was a plain, honest farmer, "with little
learning and less pretence." Mrs. Cooke was a very superior
woman, and those who assert that all remarkable men have
had remarkable mothers might refer to her as illustrating the
trnth of their theory. She possessed intellectual powers of a
hi~h order, and had received an excellent education. She
*The Life and Times 0~ Henry Cooke, D.D., LL~D., President of A~seinbly's CollQ~e, Belfast. By his son-in4aw, J. L. Porter. D D., LL.D., Professor 0~ Biblical Criticism, Assembly's College, Belfast. Lo~don: John Mui~cy,
1871.