PATRICK, SIMON (1626-1707). A Church of England divine. He was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and graduated from Queen's Col lege, Cambridge, in 1648. He took orders, and in 1655 was received as chaplain into the family of Sir Waiter Saint John, of Battersea. In 1662 he was appointed rector of Saint Paul's. Covent Garden, London, and endeared himself to his people by faithful instructions, and especially by remaining with them during the plague of 1665. In 1671 he was made chaplain in ordinary to the King. In 1672 he was made prebendary of Westminster, and in 1679 Dean of Peter borough. During the reign of James II. he de fended Protestantism. In 1689 he was made Bishop of Chichester, and in 1691 transferred to the see of Ely. In his early life he wrote against the Non-Conformists, in a pamphlet entitled A Friendly Debate Between. a Conformist and a Non-Conformist (1669), but after he became bishop he changed his opinion, regarded them with favor, and used his influence to allay strife.
He stood next to Tillotson in learning and in fluence. Among his numerous works were: Mensa. Mystira, or A Discourse Concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper (1660) ; The Heart's Ease, or a Remedy Against Trouble (1660) ; The Parable of the Pilgrim (1664) ; The Christian Sacrifice (1671) ; The Dignity of the Christian Priesthood (1704), His para phrases upon the hooks of the Old Testament from Genesis to Solomon's Song were published in ten volumes between 1695 and 1710. They are included with the commentaries of Louth, Arnold, Whitby. and Lowman, in A Critical Commentary and Paraphrase on the Ohl and New Testament and the Apocrypha (London, 1809). A complete edition of his works %%MS published in 185S by the Rev. Alexander Taylor, in nine volumes. His Autobiography was pub lished at Oxford in 1839.