It is rather little that is known about Thomas Wilcox who was born in August 1621 at Lyndon, Rutland, and probably was well educated. Thomas was married, and there were three children in the family.
Wilcox is best known for his little booklet “A Choice Drop of Honey,” which became famous in England and later also in Finland. Besides Finnish, it has been translated also at least into Estonian, Deutsch, Swedish, Chinese, Kwanyama, and Oshindonga and at least partly into Spanish.
He was a Particular Baptist elder of a small congregation, which met at his house in London before the Plague. In those days of persecution, he was known for moderation and preached frequently among the Presbyterians and independents. He was imprisoned in Newgate more than once and suffered much for the sake of Nonconformity. After 1665, he pastored a Particular Baptist church, whose meetinghouse was a small wooden building in Three Cranes Alley, Tooley Street in the Borough of Southwark. He labored lovingly, with pen as well as tongue, until his death on May 17, 1687 at the age of 65, leaving a widow and three children.
Wilcox’s well-known tract, “A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ,” often reprinted, and also translated, was much used of God. In the early 18th century there lived in central Finland a farmer named Paavo Ruotsalainen; here in the wilderness of Savo he had no other schooling apart from attending confirmation classes, but he loved reading, and in his early years was given a Bible, a very rare gift in those days; he had read it through three times by the time he was sixteen. For a long time, he was unable to find peace for his soul, so much so that his family feared for his mind. Then Willcox ’s tract came his way and showed him the one thing needful. Also, he heard of a smith who might help him, and having found him, he was given the news that Christ would make himself known to him, a needy sinner; and it was but a short time before the Lord granted peace.
Some earlier authors have mixed Thomas Wilcox with another Thomas Wilcox (1549-1608), a puritan theologian, who has written many books and life of whom there is more historical information about.
Monergism
