98 LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. " 12. Another was the presence and countenance of honest justices of peace," "who ordinarily were godly men, and always such as would be thought so, and were ready to use their authority to suppress sin and promote goodness." "But now the world is changed. "13. Another help to my success, was that small relief which my low estate enabled me to afford the poor. Though the place was reckoned at near two hundred pounds per annum, there came but ninety pounds, and sometimes only eighty pounds to me. Be- side which, some years I. had sixty or eighty pounds a year of the booksellers for my books; which little, dispersed among them, much reconciled them to the doctrine that I taught. I took the aptest of their children from the school, and sent divers ofthem to the universities ; where, for eight pounds a year, or ten, at most, by the help of my friends there, I maintained them." " Some of these are honest, able ministers, now cast out with their brethren; but two or three, having no other way to live, turned great Con- formists, and are preachers now. In giving the little I had, I did not inquire whether they were good or bad, if they asked relief; for the bad had souls and bodies that needed charity most. And I found that three pence, or a groat, to every poor body that asked me, was no great matter in a year; but a few pounds in that way of giving would go far. And this truth I will speak to theencour- agement of the charitable, that what little money I have now by me, I got it almost all, I scarce know how, at that time when I gave most, and since I have had less opportunity of giving, I have had less increase. " 14. Another furtherance of my work, was the writings which I wrote and gave away among Them. Of some small books I gave each family one, which came to about eight hundred ; and of the bigger, I gave fewer : a5td every family that waspoor, and had not a Bible, I gave a Bible to. I had found myself the benefit of reading to be so great, that I could not but think it would be profitable to others. "15. And it was a great advantage to me, that my neighbors were of such a trade, as allowed thetn time enough to read or talk of holy things. For the town liveth upon the weaving of Kidder- minster stuffs; and, as they stand in their looms, they can set a book before t.bem, or edifyone another; whereas ploughmen and many others, are so wearied, or continually employed, either in the labors, or the cares of their callings, that it is a great impedi- ment to their salvation. Freeholders and tradesmen are the strength of religion and civility in the land.; and gentlemen, and beggars, and servile tenants, are the strength Ef, iniquity. Though among these sorts, there are some also that are good and just, as
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