London on Location: St. Giles Cripplegate

St. Giles Cripplegate church is home to more than 1,000 years of church history. Today, Stephen Nichols is on location in London, discussing the many notable figures who ministered at or attended this historic church.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes In Church History. Once again, we are on location in the city of London. There are so many churches in this city that have quite a story to tell, but I want to focus on one, St. Giles Cripplegate. A church has been on this site for over one thousand years. There’s a tower on this church that was built in 1682, but if you look closely at the base of that tower, you will see some of the original stones of the original church building that date to 1090. This is one of the few remaining medieval churches that survived the great fire of London. It survived the bombing, the Blitz of World War I.

At St. Giles Cripplegate, there have been so many notable attendees and ministers. Lancelot Andrews was one of the King James Version translators. He was a minister here. John Bunyan worshiped here often when he was in the city of London. Oliver Cromwell was married here in 1620. Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, was baptized here, and John Foxe, whose Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was published in 1563 and commemorated all those martyrs during the reign of Bloody Mary. John Fox preached here, and he is actually buried inside the church right up against the chancel arch. Ben Johnson, the poet, attended St. Giles, and John Milton was a parishioner here, the author of that epic work Paradise Lost. He, too, is buried inside this church. William Shakespeare’s brother was a member of this church, and when Shakespeare’s two nephews were baptized, William Shakespeare was here for the services. The minister from 1640 to 1646 of this church was Jeremiah Burrows. He was a Puritan to the core, and he was run out of England, exiled to Holland under Charles I and his henchman, Archbishop William Laud. But in 1640, he was invited back to London, and actually, to open the Long Parliament, Jeremiah Burroughs was called on to preach the sermon that opened Parliament.

One of Jeremiah Burroughs’ books is The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, and these were sermons on Paul’s text of learning contentment and whatever state he was in, whether he was in a state of want or lack or in a state of plenty. And that was true of Jeremiah Burrough’s life. Imagine being exiled one decade and welcomed back to your nation and opening parliament with a sermon in another. Burroughs, as a London minister, was one of the faithful attendees of the Westminster Assembly and a very significant contributor to Westminster. In addition to his Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, he wrote so many books, Gospel Fear, Gospel Conversion, Gospel Worship. These were all sermon series, and these books are among some of the favorites of R.C. Sproul. He especially loved Burrough’s Gospel Worship. One of my favorite books of Burroughs is just a book simply entitled Hope and a series of sermons on that beautiful word and that beautiful concept of hope.

Well, Jeremiah Burroughs died in 1646. He not only pastored this church over those six years, he actually pastored two congregations. He pastored a church in Stepney, and he would preach there in the morning, and then he would horseback ride here to St. Giles, and he would preach in the afternoon. So St. Giles Cripplegate, a church with a thousand years, over a thousand years of history with so many notable figures and so many centuries of faithful proclamation of the Word of God. That's St. Giles Cripplegate. And I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.