Journal: Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies
Volume: JIRBS 06:1 (NA 2019)
Article: Thomas Patient: God’s Unworthy Servant
Author: Simon O’Mahony

JIRBS 6 (2019) p. 127

Thomas Patient:
God’s Unworthy Servant

Simon O’Mahony^*

^* Simon O’Mahony, M.Div, is a pastor at Grace Baptist Church, Carlisle, PA. He is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California and the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies.

“…let God the Author of every good and perfect gift have the praise which is only due to Him, and not to His Unworthy Servant, Thomas Patient.”1

Thomas Patient rightfully takes his place among the most significant men of the seventeenth-century Particular Baptists. He served as co-pastor to the renowned William Kiffin, with whom he also subscribed the first London Baptist Confession of Faith. Consistent with the Reformed theology of his Confession, he published a noteworthy work arguing that credobaptism is the correct conclusion from a right understanding of the covenants. Moreover, his most significant contribution to the Particular Baptist cause was his ministry in Ireland. Though he went as a chaplain supporting the parliamentary army, he used this position to further the Baptist cause through church planting. The founding of Baptist churches in Kilkenny, Dublin, and Waterford are attributed to Patient. He lived a full and fascinating life, leaving a rich legacy for subsequent generations of Irish Baptists.

Growing Dissatisfaction With The Church Of England

Thomas Patient’s date of birth is unknown, and little has been discovered concerning his early years. Crawford Gribben notes that

JIRBS 6 (2019) p. 128

much of Patient’s life “remains shrouded in mystery.”2 What is known about his life comes primarily from letters of correspondence, as well as his only publication The doctrine of Baptism, and the distinction of the covenants (1654). Patient prefaces this work with a brief autobiographical sketch of how he came to Baptist convictions.

Prior to immigrating to New England in the 1630s, Patient began to experience a growing dissatisfaction with the Church of England. Patient documents the time in his life following his conversion when he began to wrestle with assurance. What troubled him most was “how far Hypocrites might attain in the profession of godliness, and that they might come to have the counterfeit of all the Grace in the Child of God.”3 He feared that since this may be true of others, it could also be true of himself. During this period he felt times of deep temptation, experiencing the withdrawal of the light of God’s countenance. Yet, he persevered until he received “a sure and well-grounded conf...