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

212 HENRY COOKE, D.D., [April,
gone by, and the hallowed memory of their ministrations
long survived. But influences hostile to the truth had been
at work in Donegore. Arianism had sprung np, and in consequence vital religion had drooped a~d died. But ~Ir.
Cooke was no longer a boy. He was no longer a isposed to
shAnk from the contest when assailed by the champions of
error. He resolved that he would devote all the energies of
his life to win back to pure doctrine and earnest faith, not
mere]y the people of his own congregation, but the people
of every flock, in the church of his fathers, who had wandered from the good old paths. The work, to the accomplishment of which he resolved to devote himself, was one of
no ordinary difficalty. Religious earnestness throughout the
north of Ireland was dying, and in some districts was already
dead. Ari~nism, which had risen in the Irish Presbyterian
church in the middle of the eighteenth century, had spread
to an alarming extent, especially among the more intellectual
and refined members of the community. The number of
professed Arians of extreme views in the Synod of Ulster was
not great, but their influence was immense, and enabled
them to give tone to the religious thought of th e whole
church. Several of them were men of great intellectual ability, and of the highest culture. They were practised in debate, keen and cutting in sarcasm, and most unsparing to
their opponents. They ruled in the church courts with despotic sway. Any unfortunate orthodox minister who roused
their displeasure was made to feel the extent of their power.
They employed every effort to extend their influence. The
students and licentiates of the church they especially sought
to indoctrin ate with their opinions, and their brilliant talents and cx tensive acquirement~ were calculated powerfully
to effect the youthful mind. Twenty or thirty years more of
undisputed possession of the field, and, humanly speaking,
Arianism would have been the creed of the great majority of
the ministers of the Irish Presbyterian Chnrch. The sophism
by which the Arian leaders beguiled the public, and discomfited
their antagonists, were most plausible. They talked much about
liberty of thought, and the right of private judgment in re