Book II, Homily 3 — A Homily on Repairing and Keeping Churches Clean
A Homily on Repairing, and Keeping Clean and Comely, the Adorning of Churches
It is a common custom among all people that, when they mean to have their friends or neighbours come to their houses to eat or drink with them, or to hold some solemn gathering to discuss and talk over any matter, they will have their houses (which they keep in continual repair) made clean and fine, in case they should be thought slovenly, or thought to have little regard for their friends and neighbours. How much more, then, ought the house of God, which we commonly call the church, to be sufficiently repaired in every place, and to be honourably adorned and furnished, and kept clean and sweet, to the comfort of the people who come to it!
It appears in the holy Scripture how God's house, which was called his holy temple and was the mother church of all Judea, sometimes fell into decay, and was often profaned and defiled through the negligence and ungodliness of those who had charge of it. But when godly kings and governors were in place, then commandment was given at once that the church and temple of God should be repaired, and the people's offerings gathered for its repair. We read in the second Book of Kings[1] how King Joash, being a godly prince, commanded the priests to convert certain offerings of the people toward the repair and mending of God's temple. That most godly king Josiah gave a like commandment concerning the repair and rebuilding of God's temple, which in his time he found in grievous decay.
It has pleased Almighty God that these histories about the rebuilding and repairing of his holy temple should be written at length, so that we should be taught by them: first, that God is well pleased that his people should have a suitable place to come to, and to gather in, to praise and magnify God's holy Name. And, secondly, that he is highly pleased with all those who diligently and zealously set about mending and restoring such places as are appointed for the congregation of God's people to come to, and where they humbly and together render thanks to God for his benefits, and with one heart and voice praise his holy Name. Thirdly, that God was greatly displeased with his people because they built, decked, and trimmed up their own houses, and let God's house lie in ruin and decay, to lie unseemly and foul. Therefore God was greatly grieved with them, and plagued them, as appears in the prophet Haggai:
Thus says the Lord, Is it time for you to dwell in your panelled[2] houses, and the Lord's house not regarded? You have sowed much, and gathered in but little; your food and your clothes have neither filled you nor made you warm; and he that had his wages put it in a bottomless purse. (Haggai 1:4, 6)
By these plagues, which God laid upon his people for neglecting his temple, it may clearly appear that God will have his temple, his church, the place where his congregation gathers to magnify him, well built, well repaired, and well maintained.
Some, caring neither for godliness nor for the place of godly worship, will say that the temple under the old law was commanded to be built and repaired by God himself, because it had great promises attached to it, and because it was a figure, a sacrament, or a signification of Christ, and also of his Church. To this it may easily be answered: first, that our churches are not without promises, since our Saviour Christ says, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." (Matthew 18:20) A great number, therefore, coming to church together in the name of Christ have there, that is to say in the church, their God and Saviour Christ Jesus present among the congregation of his faithful people by his grace, by his favour and godly assistance, according to his most sure and strengthening promises. Why, then, ought not Christian people to build themselves temples and churches, having as great promises of the presence of God as Solomon ever had for the material temple that he built?
As for the other point, that Solomon's temple was a figure of Christ: we know that now, in the time of the clear light of Christ Jesus the Son of God, all shadows, figures, and significations are utterly gone, all vain and unprofitable ceremonies, both Jewish and heathen, fully abolished. Therefore our churches are not set up as figures and significations of a Messiah and Christ to come, but for other godly and necessary purposes. That is to say, that just as every man has his own house to live in, to refresh himself in, to rest in, with such conveniences,[3] so Almighty God will have his house and palaces, to which the whole parish and congregation shall come. This is called the church and temple of God because the Church, which is the company of God's people, assembles and comes together there to serve him; not meaning by this that the Lord, whom the heaven of heavens cannot hold or contain, dwells in the church of lime and stone made with human hands, as though wholly and only contained there and nowhere else, for he never so dwelt in Solomon's temple. Moreover, the church or temple is counted and called holy, yet not of itself, but because God's people who come to it are holy, and busy themselves in holy and heavenly things.
And, so that you may understand further why churches were built among Christian people, this was the greatest consideration: that God might have his place, and that God might have his time, duly to be honoured and served by the whole community of the parish. First, that there they should hear and learn the blessed word and will of the everlasting God; secondly, that there the blessed Sacraments, which our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus has ordained and appointed, should be duly, reverently, and honourably administered; thirdly, that there the whole community of God's people in the parish should with one voice and heart call upon the Name of God, magnify and praise the Name of God, and render earnest and hearty thanks to our heavenly Father for his store of benefits daily and plentifully poured upon us, not forgetting to bestow our alms upon God's poor, so that God may bless us the more richly.
So you may well perceive and understand why churches were built and set up among Christian people, and dedicated and appointed to these godly uses, and utterly kept back from all filthy, profane, and worldly uses. Therefore all those who have little mind or devotion to repair and build God's temple are to be counted people of much ungodliness, kicking against good order in Christ's Church, despising the true honour of God, and by their bad example offending and hindering their neighbours who are otherwise well and godly disposed.
The world thinks it but a trifle to see their church in ruin and decay; but whoever does not lend a helping hand sins against God and his holy congregation. For if it had not been sin to neglect and care little about the rebuilding of his temple, God would not have been so greatly grieved, and so soon have plagued his people, because they built and decked their own houses so gorgeously and despised the house of God, their Lord. It is sin and shame to see so many churches so ruinous, and so foully decayed, almost in every corner. If a man's private house, in which he lives, is decayed, he will never rest until it is restored again. Yes, if his barn, where he keeps his grain, is in disrepair, what diligence he uses to make it sound again! If his stable for his horse, or the sty for his swine, cannot keep out water and wind, how careful he is to spend money on it! And shall we be so mindful of our common, lowly houses, assigned to such low use, and be so forgetful toward that house of God, in which the words of our eternal salvation are ministered, in which the Sacraments and mysteries of our redemption are handled? The fountain of our regeneration is presented to us there; the partaking of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ is offered to us there; and shall we not esteem the place where such heavenly things are handled? Therefore, if you have any reverence for the service of God, if you have any common decency, if you have any conscience in keeping necessary and godly ordinances, keep your churches in good repair; by which you shall not only please God and deserve his manifold blessings, but also deserve the good report of all godly people.
The second point that belongs to the maintenance of God's house is to have it well adorned, comely, and cleanly kept, which things may be more easily done when the church is well repaired. For just as people are well refreshed and comforted when they find their houses with everything in good order and all corners clean and sweet, so, when God's house, the church, is well adorned with suitable places to sit in, with the pulpit for the preacher, with the Lord's table for the administration of his Holy Supper, with the font to baptize in, and is also kept clean, comely, and sweet, the people are the more eager and the more encouraged to come there, and to stay there the whole time appointed for them.
With what earnestness, with what vehement zeal did our Saviour Christ drive the buyers and sellers out of the temple of God, and hurl down the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and could not bear that any man should carry a vessel through the temple! He told them that they had made his Father's house a den of thieves, partly through their superstition, hypocrisy, false worship, false doctrine, and insatiable covetousness, and partly through contempt, abusing that place with walking and talking, with worldly matters, without all fear of God and due reverence to that place. What dens of thieves the churches of England have been made through the blasphemous buying and selling of the most precious Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass (as the world was made to believe), at dirges, at month's minds, in trentals, in abbeys and chantries, besides other horrible abuses — God's holy Name be blessed for ever — we now see and understand. All these abominations those who fill the place of Christ have cleansed and purged out of the churches of England, taking away all such foulness and filthiness as, through blind devotion and ignorance, had crept into the Church these many hundred years.
Therefore, O you good Christian people, you dearly beloved in Christ Jesus, you who glory not in worldly and vain religion, in fanciful adorning and decking, but rejoice in heart to see the glory of God truly set forth and the churches restored to their ancient and godly use: render your most hearty thanks to the goodness of Almighty God, who has in our days stirred up the hearts not only of his godly preachers and ministers, but also of his faithful and most Christian magistrates and governors, to bring such godly things to pass. And, since your churches are scoured and swept clean of the sin and superstitious filthiness with which they were defiled and disfigured, do your part, good people, to keep your churches comely and clean. Do not allow them to be defiled with rain and weather, with the dung of doves and owls, starlings and jackdaws, and other filthiness, as it is foul and lamentable to behold in many places of this country.
It is the house of prayer, not the house of talking, of walking, of brawling, of minstrelsy, of hawks, of dogs. Do not provoke the displeasure and plagues of God by despising and abusing his holy house, as the wicked Jews did. But keep God in your heart; be obedient to his blessed will; bind yourselves, every man and woman according to their ability, to the repair and clean keeping of your church, so that you may be partakers of God's manifold blessings, and that you may be the better encouraged to come to your parish church — there to learn your duties toward God and your neighbour, there to be present and partakers of Christ's holy Sacraments, there to render thanks to your heavenly Father for the manifold benefits that he daily pours upon you, there to pray together and to call upon God's holy Name. May his Name be blessed, world without end. Amen.
The 1859 text reads "the fourth Book of the Kings," the old Vulgate name for what modern Bibles call the second Book of Kings (Vulgate 3–4 Kings = modern 1–2 Kings). The repair of the temple under Joash is 2 Kings 12; under Josiah, 2 Kings 22–23.↩︎
Source reading uncertain here. The 1859 text reads "seeled" (= cieled, i.e. panelled or wainscoted); the OCR of this word and of "you" ("IV") was garbled in the underlying scan.↩︎
Original: "commodities" (= conveniences, benefits, or advantages), not goods for trade.↩︎