Three Ways of Self-Entertainment by Nathanael Ranew

Nathanael Ranew (1602-1678) was admitted to Emmanuel College in 1617, graduating with a B.A. in 1621 and M.A. in 1624. He was the minister at St. Andrew Hubbard, Little Eastcheap, London from 1627 until 1647, when he was instituted under a parliamentary order to the vicarage of Felsted, Essex. Ranew took a prominent place among Essex non-conformists. He was ejected from Felsted by the Act of Conformity in 1662, and settled in Billericay, where he was buried on March 17, 1678. Edmund Calamy, in his”Non-Conformist’s Memorial,” calls him “a judicious divine, generally esteemed and valued.”

Outside of Scripture, I do not think there is a better place to have your mind stimulated, soul nourished, and life pastorally guided than by 17^th century Puritans. Ranew was one of the first Puritans I was introduced as I purchased one of his books at Mt. Zion Chapel Library in Pensacola, Florida. The book I am referring to is called Solitude Improved by Divine Meditation or A Treatise proving the Duty, and Demonstrating the Necessity, Excellency, Usefulness, Natures, Kinds, and Requisites of Divine Meditation (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1995). Divine meditation is a lost art today as we have become the ephemeral society that caters to drive-time devotions and minimal exposure to Scripture. Ranew’s work is a gem (Spurgeon referred to it numerous times in his Treasury of David), and I would like to recommend it to you as a potential corrective to the flighty and fickle dominance as well as a call to grope for gravitas.

In his introduction, Ranew gives three ways of “self-entertainment” which I would like to tag with this post. I found them encouraging, and I pray you do too.

Three Ways of Self-Entertainment

A pious heart hath three happy ways of self-entertainment in solitary; three ways of being least alone, when most alone.

The first way of self-entertainment, is the ordinance of reading and searching the Holy Scriptures, the pure, perfect, and infallible word and will of Christ concerning us. There Christ hath prepared his rich feast of fat things full of morrow, and his royal banquet of heavenly truths. There he sets forth the great varieties of sure directions, precious promises, high examples, rare experiences, and the help of all his holy ordinances, to feed and satiate the hungry and thirsty spirit.

The second way of self-entertainment, is divine meditation, by either pondering of spiritual things, for improving knowledge, and exciting practice; or by a weighing of all other things whatever, for reducing them to a spiritual end and use.

The third way of self-entertainment, is private praying, such as is both founded on and bounded by Christ’s will in his word; such as is both prepared and assisted, made wise and warm by serious meditation.

Meditation stands between the two ordinances of reading and praying, as the grand improver of the former, and the high quickener of the latter, to furnish the mind with choice materials for prayer, and to fill the heart with holy fervency in it.