Jonathan Allen

Allen, Jonathan. Concerning this hymn-writer, to whom is credited the hymn, "Sinners, will you scorn the message?" we can only say that this hymn appeared in Hymns adapted to Public Worship, collected from various Authors, Exeter, S. Woolmer, 1801, edited by Richard Pearsell Allen, Minister of Castle Street Meeting, Exeter; and that in D. Sedgwick's marked copy of John Dobell's New Selection, &c., 1806, it is attributed to Jonathan Allen. What authority Sedgwick had for this ascription we cannot determine. It is through him that it has gained currency. Allen's hymn, "Sinners, will you scorn, &c," is sometimes given with stanzas i. and ii. transposed, as "Hear the heralds of the Gospel," as in the American Baptist Praise Book, N. Y. 1871. [William T. Brooke]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)