Guess the author: #1

Give me thy grace, good Lord, to set the world at nought,
To set my mind fast upon Thee, and not to hang upon the blast of men’s mouths;
To be content to be solitary, not to long for worldly company;
Little and little utterly to cast off the world
And rid my mind of all the business thereof …
Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help,
To lean unto the comfort of God, busily to labour to love Him;
To know my own vilety and wretchedness;
To humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God;
To bewail my sins past, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity;
Gladly to bear my purgatory here, to be joyful of tribulations;
To walk the narrow way that leadeth to life;
To bear the cross with Christ …

To have ever afore mine eye my death that is ever at hand;
To make death no stranger to me …

To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me;
For his benefits uncessantly to give him thanks …

To think my most enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favour as they did him with their malice and hatred.

These minds are more to be desired of every man, than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all upon one heap.

(I’ll give the answer in the next post.)