The National Register.
London, England, 1814-03-27 00:00:00

erbe Jutptt,

No. 13.

Twist not, with a tedions length,
0; proofs •external. The strong leading facts
CQ:Jcil,ely representing, quickly bring
The it; tcrnal evidence to light, that strikes
Ctinviction—while it sinks into the heart!
PoLWHELE.

REV. JOHN ALLEN,
PAiTOR 9F A DISSENTING CONGREGATION AT EXETER,.

Exhortation has greater influence than ratiocination. For
cue individual that is to be argued into an acknowledgment
of the truth, there are thousand who are more easily to he
persuaded of it. *Extemporary preaching has in this point
of view peculiar advantiges. The preacher thus addresses
himself naturally, and of course, to the feelings of the hearers,
and is consentaneously and efficaciously heard. Whatever
of defect may be attached to this mode of inculcating religi.
ous truths, therefore, it seems practically superior to that sys-
tem of teaching which fails either to rivet the attention or
engage the affections

The REv. JOHN ALLEN, who belongs to the extemporary
school, has been for several years settled over a numerous
Congregation of Protestant Dissenters, in the city of Exeter,
and seems entitled to the estimation in which his pulpit la-
bours are there held. He is likewise known as the translator
of a new edition of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Reli-
gion, emecuted acoording to the original Latin, and collated
with the author's last edition in

Gifted, as be certainly is, with abilities of no ordinary
kind, this preacher is nevertheless found exposed to one of
those censures that generally attaches to an older of divines
who are in no sense eminent for their talents. "Itis a mat-
ter of great delicacy," even as the authors of a New Direc-
tory for Nonconformist Churches observe, 6' for ministers
to introduce, as some arc ever prone to do, their own per-
sonal or domestic concerns into the public devotions, or to
Teak of themselves at al+.. Now, then, the present preacher
does sometimes so far ()fiend against what these writers not
improperly consider to be the law of delicacy, regarding
public devotions, by praying for himself in the pulpit, and
intermixing his own personal concerns with those which
affect only the church. Owing to the want of delicacy on
this score, indeed, " we have sometimes heard cases of so
peculiar and so trivial a nature brought into the public in-
tercessions, as (if at alt fit matter for prayer) ought to be
confined to the closets of the persons themselves."
‘Vhen one asked Demosthen• s what constituted the first
requisite for an orator, he is said to have replied—" hold-
mess ;" and to have given this decision with an authoritativa
weight, by repeating it thrice. Emphasis is to the present
preacher, then, what boldness was in the estimateof the great
orator of antiquity, though he is far from wanting, at the
same time, in the last qualification. His emphases are re-
markably distinct, and communicate to his sentences an as-
tonishing force. But this anxiety to be useful, to be heard
and felt, stimulates him to over-exert this talent, if not also
his strength.

Considered doctrinally, Mr. Allen adheres to what is de-
nominated Calvinism. His language is theologically dis-
tinctive, and his discourses are truly experimental ; but he
is postulatory, rather than disquisitive, and hortatory, rather
than persuasive.
Though he carries his guiding notes into the pulpit, yet
ke is not fettered by them. He delivers himself with A free-

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