Transcribed from the 1855 Charles Westerton edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org IS THE VICAR OF BROMPTON A TRACTARIAN? A QUESTION FOR THE PARISHIONERS. BY A LAYMAN. * * * * * “You call me a Tractarian, I am not so in any sense.”—See the _Letter of Dr. Irons to the Editor of the Record_. “He that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him”.—_Proverbs_ 18 chap. 17 verse. * * * * * LONDON: CHARLES WESTERTON, WESTERTON’S LIBRARY, 20, ST. GEORGE’S PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER; SEELEY’S, FLEET STREET. * * * * * 1855. _Price Sixpence_. * * * * * _If any profits arise from the sale of this little publication_, _they will be given to the funds of the Chelsea_, _Brompton_, _and Belgrave Dispensary_. * * * * * PREFATORY REMARKS. IN placing before my fellow parishioners this publication, I think it necessary most distinctly to disavow any personal hostility to the Vicar, as an individual. I feel it the more incumbent on me to say this, as my object is not so much to prove the errors and unscriptural teaching of the “Tractarians,” as to make it plain (by his own words and actions) that Dr. Irons must be considered as altogether identified with the “Tractarian” party. On a fitting occasion, however, I shall be ready (the Lord enabling me) to shew, that the principles and practices of those clergymen who have unhappily embraced “Tractarian” error, are as contrary to God’s blessed Word as they are to the Articles of our Church; and that these principles (if honestly carried out) as necessarily lead to Rome, as a humble and prayerful study of the Bible, will assuredly lead the sincere enquirer into the light and liberty of Gospel truth. It is the policy of the more wily amongst the “Tractarians” to keep aloof in some measure from the “Ultras” of their party, and to follow the Jesuitical advice given from a certain quarter, not to be over hasty in bringing in Anglican forms and observances amongst their congregations, but to win them over by little and little. This policy will account for much that is going on in our parish, where we have a Vicar who _says_ that he is not a Tractarian “in any sense.”