AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING 4 short Account of the signal and surprising Appearances of God in his Providence for the erecting ,and support of a Charity-School, among the Pietists, or Puritans; in Germany. IT is now about thirty years ago, that some masters of art, in the university at Leipsick, in Saxony, set up a private con- ference among themselves for the better understanding of scrip- ture, and for the regulating their studies and their conversation accordingly : The first part of that exercise was critical, to find out the literal meaning of the text, and the other part consisted in 'the deducing of propositions and practical uses from it. This was kept up With good success for some time in a private cham- ber after evening service was over on Sundays. One of the persons concerned in this affair was Mr. Augustus Hermanons Frank. Many of the young students were powerfully wrought on by this plain and practical way of reading the bible, and ex- cited to an ardent love for the study of the holy scriptures, rather minding now the hearty reformation of their souls and conversion from darkness to light than Ifnnecessary strifes and disputes. They always begun and ended with prayer. When this thingbegan to have awider spread and influence, the other students who had no mind to enter upon a new course of life, in derision called them Pietists, as our fathers in Eng- land were called Puritans, and much on the same account. The clamours against them grew fierce and violent, the pulpits rung with this new name of reproach, ecclesiastical courts bestir- red themselves, and the first instruments of pietismwere banished from Leipsick : Mr. Frank was persecuted fromplace to place, till at last, by the providence of God, he was chosen professor of the oriental languages at the university of Hall, and pastor of Glaucha, in the suburbs of that city.. This good man when he was settled at Glaucha, being . grieved at the gross ignorance of the poor and at their wicked, lives, appointed them to come every Thursday, to his house in order to make some charitable distributions amongst them, and to instruct them in the things of God. This was about the year 1694. The next year he fixed an alms.box in his parlour, and in a little timea certain person put into it at once about the value of eighteen shillings and sixpence. He took this in his hands and said in full assurance offeu tb, a This is now a considerable
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