Allen, James (5)
Allen, James
a Puritan minister, was born in England in 1632. He was a fellow of New College, Oxford, but was ejected for non-conformity in 1662, came to America, and was ordained teacher of the First Church, Boston, December 9, 1668, as colleague with Mr. Davenport, who was at the same time ordained pastor. He served this church for forty years with dignity and industry, but without remarkable success. Several of his occasional sermons were printed. He died September 22, 1710. Sprague, Annals, 1, 163. Allen, John, one of the early ministers of Massachusetts, was born in England in 1596, and was driven from his native land during the persecution of the Puritans. Removing to New England, he was settled pastor of the church at Dedham, April 24, 1639, where he continued till his death, August 26, 1671. He was a man of considerable distinction in his day. He published a defense of the nine positions, in which, with Mr. Shepard of Cambridge, he discusses the points of Church discipline, and a defense of the synod of 1662, against Mr. Chauncy, under the title of Animadversions upon the Antisynodalia (4to, 1664). Allen, Biographical Dict. s.v.; Allibone, Dict. of Authors, 1, 53.
Allen, John
chancellor of Ireland, was born in 1476, was educated at Oxford, and took his bachelor’s degree at Cambridge. He soon obtained several benefices, and was sent by Archbishop Warham to Rome on ecclesiastical affairs; he spent nine years there; and, on his return, Wolsey made him his chaplain. He was made archbishop of Dublin in 1528, and soon after chancellor. He was an active assistant of Cardinal Wolsey in the spoliation of the religious houses, and was a learned canonist. Allen was murdered by Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the earl of Kildare, July 28, 1534, and his death was regarded by the people as a divine judgment upon him for having been instrumental in the destruction of forty monasteries. He wrote Epist. de Pallii Significatione, and other pieces relating to ecclesiastical subjects. Biog. Univ. tom. 1, p. 590; Rose, Biog. Dictionary; Landon, Eccles. Dict. s.v.; Wood, Athenoe Oxonienses.
Allen, John
a learned layman, was born at Truro, in Cornwall, England, in 1771, and conducted for upward of thirty years a private school in London, where he died June 17, 1839. He published a work on Modern Judaism (8vo, London, 1816 and 1830). Bickersteth calls it the best work on the subject in the English language. In 1813 he published a translation of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, which has continued to be the standard English version of that great work, though it may now, perhaps (1862), be superseded by Beveridge’s new translation. Allen’s edition of the Institutes was reprinted at New York (1819, 4to), and often since in 2 vols. 8vo, in which form it is issued by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia. Darling, Cyclopoedia Bibliographica, 1, 49; Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, 1, 53.
Allen, John
was pastor of a Baptist congregation at Spitalfields, 1764 to 1767. Engaging in business, he became involved in difficulties, was tried for forgery, and was acquitted. He subsequently went to New York, and had some reputation as a preacher there until his death. He published The Spiritual Magazine, or the Christian’s Grand Treasure, wherein the Doctrines of the Bible are unfolded (Lond. 1752; reprinted, with preface by Romaine, Lond. 1810, 3 vols. 8vo); Chain of Truth, a dissertation on the Harmony of the Gospels (1764). Wilson, Dissenting Churches, 4, 426; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliographica, 1, 49.
Allen, John
an English Wesleyan minister, was born at Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, June 10, 1737. He joined the Methodist Society in 1759, and in 1766 was appointed to the Manchester Circuit, and successively to the Sussex Circuit. in Staffiordshire, and others, including London, 1769; Bristol; 1772; Keighley, 1777; Leeds, 1794; Liverpool, 1795; and Bolton, 1797. In 1799 he became a supernumerary, and took up his residence in Liverpool, where he died, Feb. 20, 1810. He had all the marks of a man of God. See Wesleyan Meth. Magazine, 1812, p. 2, 81; Minutes of British Conference, 1810.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Allen, James (1)
a Congregational minister, was born at Roxbury, Mass., in 1692, and was a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1710. His ordination took place Nov. 5, 1718, and he was the first minister of the Church in Brookline, Mass. His ministry continued twenty-eight years, being terminated by his death, which occurred Feb. 18, 1747. His published sermons were seven in number, one of them being The Election Sermon Preached before the Massachusetts Legislature in 1744. His parish shared largely in the revival which so generally pervaded New England in the middle of the century in which he lived. See Pierce, Centen. Discourse; Allen, Amer. Biog. Dict. s.v. (J. C. S.)
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Allen, James (2)
an English Methodist minister, was born in Yorkshire, June 14, 1734. It was the purpose of his father to educate him for the ministry in the Established Church. To fit his son for his profession, he placed him under the tuition of a clergyman, whose immoral character so displeased the young candidate for holy orders that he withdrew from a Church which harbored in its communion men so dissolute as his tutor. Having received spiritual benefit from the ministry of Mr. Ingham, a Methodist preacher, he joined his connection, and for nine years he was a popular minister in that denomination. Having the means to build a house of worship, he erected a meeting-house for himself, in which, with a good degree of success, he preached during the remainder of his life. Mr. Allen was the author of the hymn commencing Sinners, will you scorn the message? He died Oct. 31,1804, in the village in which he was born. See Belcher, Historical Sketches of Hymns, p. 75. (J. C. S.)
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Allen, James (3)
an English Wesleyan minister, was born at Burslem, Sept. 28, 1787. He became a member of the class-meeting at the age of twelve; was called into the work of the itinerancy in 1806; retired: from its activities in 1854; went subsequently to Bramley, and died there, Sept. 20, 1863. Deep spirituality of mind, coupled with modesty and a constitutional reserve, made this benevolent and affable man appear distant and taciturn. His character was without a blemish, and the consistency shown in his youth was manifested in old-age (Isaac Keeling). I have known many Wesleyan ministers, but I never knew a holier man (John Farrar). He was characterized by an eminent and unostentatious liberality, sometimes denying himself of even the necessaries of life in order to give the more. See (Lond.) Wesleyan Meth. Magazine, Aug. 1865, p. 682-693; Minutes of British Conference (Lond. 1864), p. 11.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Allen, James (4)
a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Worcester County, Md., Dec. 22, 1811. He became an orphan in early youth; experienced religion in 1832; acquired a good education; and in 1837 entered the Philadelphia Conference, in which he labored faithfully until death, Aug. 27, 1850. Mr. Allen was greatly devoted to the Church, and much beloved by all. As a preacher, he was studious and zealous; as a parent, affectionate and devoted; as a Christian, cheerful and spiritual. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1851, p. 558.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Allen, James (5)
an English Wesleyan minister, son of James (3), was born at Uttoxeter, Aug. 30, 1822. He was educated at Kingswood School, entered the Didsbury Theological Seminary in 1844, the ministry in 1846, and died at Bramley, Aug. 30, 1873. He was one of the best men, says a minister, I ever knew. So unostentatious; so content to be good without popularity; so single-minded in living for Christ; so indefatigable as a minister; so true and kind and affectionate to his colleagues. Says another, His sermons, his counsels, his prayers, his wit, his cheerfulness, his very presence, always charmed me into kindliness and love. And I am speaking very moderately when I say there are scores of ministers and officers in the Church who owe their position and influence mainly to his efficient training and oversight. His life was radiant with all manner of goodness. Mr. Allen was a diligent student, and very successful in conducting theological classes. See Bunting’s sprightly Memoir of him, with extracts from his journal, in Wesleyan Meth. Magazine, Jan. and Feb. 1875; also Minutes of British Conference, 187, 4, p. 9.