ABSTRACT
The practice of the godly life art of suffering depends heavily on the practice of 'deliberate' or systematic meditation. The first tentative signs of significant change in the structure of the godly life art of suffering appear in Richard Rogers' seminal seven treatises in 1603. John Downame's Consolations is the last of the texts on the godly life art of suffering to consider deliverance as an issue in its own right. The initial step-by-step structure of the godly life art of suffering has become a sequence of cumulative steps. The 1655 version, however, is a godly life art of suffering. It has three 'branches': anticipating affliction, for which Edward Reyner gives uniquely detailed instructions, preparing for affliction, and bearing affliction well. Thomas Gouge uses Reyner's Precepts for Christian practice, Richard Sibbes' The sovles conflict with itself e and the art of suffering in Jeremiah Burroughes' Moses his choice.
