PATRICK, SYMON, D.D., successively Bishop of Chichester (consecrated A.D. 1689) and Ely (translated 1691), one of the brightest ornaments of the English Church, was born at Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, in 1626 ; was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, of which he became fellow in 1648, and of which, thirteen years afterwards, he was by a majority of the fellows elected Master ; but the election was annulled by the arbitrary interference of the king. In 1651 he graduated M.A., and about the same time was ordained by Bishop Hall, the ejected of Norwich ; his D.D. degree he took at Oxford (having been admitted at Christ Church) in 1666. His ecclesiastical prefer ments, previous to the two highest already men tioned, were the vicarage of Battersea, in 1658 ; the rectory of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, in 1662 ; in 1672 the prebend of Westminster ; and in 1679 the deanery of Peterborough. He died in 17o7. In the appendix of his Autobiography, and the Memoir of his life, first published in 1839 at Oxford, there is a list of no less than fifty-one works which this excellent man found time to write in the in tervals of his active avocations ; many of these are among the very best devotional divinity of the Church of England, but admit not of enumeration in this work. As early as 1678 he published his Paraphrases on Job and the Psalms ; and these were followed by two similar works on Proverbs, and on Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, in 1681. These minor expositions were followed a few years afterwards by the Commentaries, which have been deservedly celebrated as, on the whole, the most valuable ever published in the English language (Bp. Watson). In 1694 appeared his Commentary on Genesis ; Exodus m 1696 ; Leviti cus in 1698 ; Numbers in 1699 ; Deuteronomy, 1700; yosIma, yudges, and Ruth, also in 1700; and 2 Samuel in 1703 ; I and 2 Kings in 1704 ; and i and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, in 1705. These commentaries and para
phrases of Bishop Patrick are supplemented by Lowth on the Prophets, Arnald on the Apocryphal Books, Whitby and Lowman on the N T The entire series was more than once, during the last century, republished in six folio volumes, always without Lowman on the Revelation, and occasion ally also without Amald—Patrick's portion of the work being comprised in the first two volumes. More recent editions are that of 1809, edited by the Rev. J. Pitman, 7 vols 4to ; that of 1822, in 6 vols. royal 410 ; and that of 1842, with the text, 4 vols. imp. 8vo, reissued in 1853. This frequent reproduction of so large a work bespeaks its value. Patrick, whose contribution is the best part of the commentary, possessed some of the highest qualities of a good expositor of Holy Scripture. Besides learning, he displays invariable reverence in his subject, perspicuity of style unembarrassed by lengthy dissertation, and an accurate command of the drift and connection of the book he is treating ; added to which, he never perplexes his reader with merely detailing various opinions on difficult texts without giving his own conclusion ; and over all his work he has thrown tne charm of good sense and sound discretion. Besides these express Bibli cal treatises, many of this good man's writings admirably illustrate portions of Scripture—such as his Christian Sacrzfice, his works on the sacra ments, and on the Roman controversy. His Theo logical Works, Autobiography, were published (the Rev. A. Taylor being the editor) at Oxford, in nine octavo volumes, in 1859. Ap pended to his Autobiography is a Paraphrase on Romans ix.—P. H.