This past Reformation Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching at a local PCA church. As a Baptist, it was wonderful to be with those saints and to rejoice in our common Protestant identity and convictions. But, as in previous instances, there was that awkward moment before the service when the pastor asked, “Would you mind wearing the Genevan gown as you preach?” How should a Baptist minister think about such a request?
When Spurgeon visited Geneva in 1860, he faced a similar dilemma. While traveling through the continent, he was invited to preach in St. Peter’s Cathedral, from the same pulpit where Calvin preached during the Reformation. As one who was born in the Reformed tradition and loved John Calvin, he was eager to accept the honor. And yet, before he preached, the elders there asked if he would be willing to preach in “full canonicals.” As a Baptist, a Nonconformist, and a modern Puritan, Spurgeon was especially allergic to anything that smelled of Roman Catholic teaching and practice. How did he respond?
Spurgeon tells the story,
I preached in the cathedral at Geneva; and I thought it a great honor to be allowed to stand in the pulpit of John Calvin. I do not think half the people understood me, but they were very glad to see and join in heart with the worship in which they could not join with the understanding. I did not feel very happy when I came out in full canonicals, but the request was put to me in such a beautiful way that I could have worn the Pope’s tiara, if by so doing I could have preached the gospel the more freely. They said, “Our dear brother comes to us from another country. Now, when an ambassador comes from another land, he has the right to wear his own costume at Court; but, as a mark of great esteem, he sometimes condescends to the manners of the people he is visiting, and wears their Court dress.” “Well,” I said, “yes, that I will, certainly, if you do not require it, but merely ask it as a token of my Christian love. I shall feel like running in a sack, but it will be your fault.”[1]
For Spurgeon, what made the difference was that these elders did not require him to wear the gown but framed it as a matter of local custom, perhaps as a kind of act of hospitality from the visiting preacher. Had the elders said to him, “You cannot preach here unless you wear this gown,” then Spurgeon might well have refused. Like the Puritans before him, the imposition of an unbiblical requirement of all preachers needing to wear clerical vestments meant that he could not submit to that rule in good conscience. But since they were not requiring this, though he felt like he was preaching “in a sack,” Spurgeon was happy to submit to their customs.
In fact, Spurgeon was even happier when he found it where the gown came from: “It was John Calvin’s gown, and that reconciled me to it very much. I do love that man of God; suffering all his life long, enduring not only persecutions from without but a complication of disorders from within, and yet serving his Master with all his heart.”[2] I do enjoy the mental picture of the short, round Spurgeon squeezing into the gown of the slender, gaunt John Calvin!
Whenever I’ve found myself in a similar situation of being asked to wear the preaching gown, my reply is, “Do I have to wear a gown in order the preach the gospel here?” So far, the response has always been, “No, you don’t have to.” To which, I respond, “Then I’m happy to wear it.” Like Spurgeon, as long as they’re not imposing it as an unbiblical requirement, then I’m happy in good conscience to put on a gown and preach in it, even though “I shall feel like running in a sack.” I haven’t yet encountered a situation where I’ve been required to wear a gown to preach. If that were to happen, I suppose there would be an even more awkward conversation after that. But all this would be a way to uphold the Puritan distinctive of the Regulative Principle, rooted in the Protestant principle of Sola Scriptura. God’s Word alone reigns over the church, and this applies even when you have a chance to preach from Calvin’s pulpit wearing Calvin’s gown.
[1] Spurgeon, Autobiography, 2:372. Emphasis mine.
[2] Ibid.