Selected quad for the lemma: day_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
day_n	friday_n	thursday_n	tuesday_n	5,844	5	12.5385	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67379	A defense of the Christian Sabbath in answer to a treatise of Mr. Tho. Bampfield pleading for Saturday-sabbath / by John Wallis.	Wallis, John, 1616-1703.	1692 (1692)	Wing W569; ESTC R2541	83,482	87

earlier than these Though I do not at present meet with it Nor do I think it worth the while to make any great search about it I grant that when Christianity was spread among the Gentiles and with it the Christian Sabbath they did in order to the observing that Sabbath distinguish their time into Weeks and thereupon gave Names to each Day I grant also that the Iews did before so distinguish their Time but I do not find that any other Nation did so If any think that All nations did so distinguish and every Nation all the World over call the days by those Names by which they are now called This I take to be but a Presumption without proof But when ever those names were first taken up I do not think they were taken from the number of their Gods for then they must have had a great many more days in their Week than Seven if each of their Gods must have a peculiar day But from the number of the Planets which were then reckoned to be Seven and in this order Saturn Iupiter Mars Sol Venus Mercury Luna Though we now know the Planets to be more than Seven For the Satellites of Iupiter and Saturn are as much Planets as our Moon but were not then known Nor were the Seven Planets always reckoned in the same order but some had been thought to be above the Sun which before these names were given were accounted to be below it And therefore these Names must be at least so late And certainly not so old as Iob's time I take them not to be older than what are called the Planetary Hours but to take their Rise from thence and the Order of the Names to be thence determined For having divided the Day into 24 Hours Beginning with Saturn the highest of the Planets they assigned to him the First hour of one day which thence they called Saturn's day the Second hour to Iupiter the Third to Mars and so in order till they came to the Eighth hour which falls to Saturn's turn again and so again to the Fifteenth and the Two and Twentieth and then the Three and Twentieth to Iupiter the Four and Twentieth to Mars and the next hour being the first of the next day to Sol. Which day doth thence take the name of Sol or Sunday next in order after Saturn And in like manner proceeding the Eighth Fifteenth and Two and Twentieth hour of that day will fall again to Sol the Three and Twentieth to Venus the Four and Twentieth to Mercury and then the first hour of the next day to Luna thence called Monday next after Sunday And in like manner the first hour of the following day to Mars of the next to Mercury the next to Iupiter the next to Venus and then again to Saturn and so onward as before And this I take to be the true account of those Names and in that Order Saturday Sunday Monday after which in the Latine Denomination follow the days of Mars Mercury Iupiter and Venus But some of our Ancestors the Saxons thought fit as is supposed to put-in the Names of Twisco Woden Thor Frea some of their Princes instead of Mars Mercury Iupiter and Venus as Iulius and Augustus amongst the Romans gave their Names to the Months formerly called Quintilis and Sextilis From which Saxon Princes we have the Names of Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Fryday the other days retaining the Names of their respective Planets as they did before This account from the order of the Planetary Hours Dio gives us of the Names of the Week-days and of their Order Why so called and why in this Order He tells us of another account from the Principles of Harmonicks Because Dia-tessaron which we call a Fourth is Reputed a Concord in Musick therefore they might beginning with Saturn skipping two Iupiter and Mars take the Fourth Sol then skipping the two next Venus and Mercury take Luna And then skipping Saturn and Iupiter take Mars Then skipping Sol and Venus take Mercury Then skipping Luna and Saturn take Iupiter Then skipping Mars and Sol take Venus Then skipping Mercury and Luna take Saturn and so onward as before But this account seems more Forced and the former more Natural Which therefore I take to be the true ground of this Order But either way depending upon the order of the Planets as they were then accounted when these Names were given to the Week-days it is at least so far evident that they cannot be older than since the Planets were accounted to be placed in this order And therefore not so old as when Venus or Mercury or both of them were thought to be above the Sun For this would quite disturb the Order And therefore certainly not so old as Iob's time Whether on each of these Days they did worship those respective Planets as so many Gods I cannot say nor do I think it Nor do I think that each of those Planets have any more Government of their respective Hours or Days than of others For I take the whole foundation as well of These as of the other parts of Iudicial Astrology to be purely Precarious and assigned onely at pleasure by those whose business it was to amuse credulous people and thereby to make a Gain of them But whatever were the occasion of the first imposing these are now the known Names of those days And we need no more scruple the use of these Names than to talk of Pope Pius Clemens Boniface and Innocent though possibly the Persons so called had none of those good Qualities In like manner as we have a Spring near Oxford which we call Aristotle's Well not that we think Aristotle was ever there or was Lord of the place and much less that he was wont to be there Worshiped but we so call it as being now the proper name of the place imposed at pleasure by which it is known And so for the days of the Week whatever were the occasion of the first imposing they now signify no more than the proper distinctive names by which the days are known And why we may not continue so to call them I know not We are told Act. 17. 19 22. of Paul's being at Areopagus or Mars-hill because that was the known name of the place without scrupling the reason why it was so called whether because Mars had been there worshiped or for what other reason And Act. 28. 11. 〈◊〉 a Ship designed by Castor and Pollux or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without scrupling the reason of that name or what relation these Stars had to Iupiter so as to be called his Lads And when Paul 1 Cor. 8. allows them without Scruple to eat of things offered in Sacrifice to Idols even though they knew or had reason to presume them so to be unless when they might be suspected to do it with respect to the Idol as the Apostle argues at large 1 Cor. 8. and again Chap. 10. No doubt we may as lawfully make use

to Us Now as it did Then to Israel I cannot assent to it For it cannot be said of all Us who are under that Law that God hath Brought us out of the land of Egypt out of the house of Bondage or that We are to expect long life in the land of Canaan which he Gave Them If he say that our deliverance from spiritual bondage is equivalent to theirs from Egypt and our land the same to us as Canaan was to them I grant it But so is our Lords Day equivalent to their Seventh-day-sabbath and Christ the true Manna more than equivalent to that of theirs from the raining of which they reckoned their Iewish Sabbaths As to what he says of Mat. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day which he thinks to be understood of the Iewish Sabbath 38 years after Christs Resurrection Perhaps it may For the obstinate Jews who would not in their day understand the things that belonged to their peace but rejected Christ did no doubt continue to observe their Jewish Sabbath and thought themselves obliged so to do And it would then be as great an Affliction to them as if their Sabbath were yet in force But no more a sin to fly on that day than to fly in the Winter It would be so to the Christians if put to flight on the Christian Sabbath for the case would be the like of both and they might as well Pray against it That is Against their Flight on the Christian Sabbath as the Iews on the Iewish Sabbath This therefore makes nothing at all to his purpose He might as well argue from hence that it were a sin to labour in Winter as on the Iewish Sabbath He hath many other little excursions as little to the purpose with which I shall not trouble my self or you having fully answered what seems to me to have any appearance of Argument But he takes great pleasure to expose the Name of Sunday Yet I do not find any more fond of using it than he Not that he would be thought to like the Word but because he thinks it a Reproach If he do not like that name he may call it as we do the Lords Day the Christian Sabbath or if he think these too good names for it he may call it the First day of the Week But why not as angry with the Monday or other of the Week days If on Monday the Heathens as he would have us think did worship the Moon as the Sun on Sunday why is he not as angry with that It is as much Idolatry to worship the Moon on Monday as the Sun on Sunday True But that doth not concern the Christians Sabbath which is what he hath a mind to reproach and therefore he speaks little of the other and but seldome But Sunday is to be snubbed upon every occasion He would not have a Sabbath upon Sunday because he says on that day they worshiped the Sun But why upon Saturday if on that day as he would have us think they worshiped Saturn Now 't is true that some of the Heathen did worship the Sun and the Moon and the Host of Heaven But that they did worship the Sun more upon Sunday than they did upon Monday or Tuesday is more than I know or he can prove He tells us Verstegan says that the Heathen Saxons did so But Verstegan is too young an Author to settle this upon his own Authority unless he can bring Vouchers for it more ancient than himself It was I suppose a Fansy of Verstegan Then as it is of our Author Now But I do not remember that he cites any Author ancienter than himself And though some others may say the like Yet I look upon it but as a plausible conjecture without any good foundation in History And even the Heathen Suxons are too late for his purpose He tells us p. 88. The Heathen Nations long before Christs Birth did offer Sacrifice to the Sun and worship it as a God upon Sunday His proof is from Iob 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined or the Moon walking in brightness and my heart hath been secretly enticed or my mouth hath kissed my hand this were an iniquity to be punished by the Iudges for I should have denied the Lord above But what is all this to Sunday It may perhaps be a disclaimer of worshiping the Sun but says nothing of Sunday Doth our Author think the name of Sunday to be as old as Iob's times If Iob had said If I have worshiped the Sun upon Sunday or the Moon upon Monday and not the Lord upon Saturday it had been to his purpose But here is nothing of that Not a word of what day it was on which they worshiped the Sun But I would not have him lay too great a load upon Sunday For Hesiod tells us as was said before that in his time one of the oldest of the Heathen Writers though younger than Iob the Seventh day was Sun-day not the First And he hath nothing to shew more than the bare Name of Sunday to make us believe that those of the Heathen who worshiped the Sun did confine that worship to this day of the Week or Did more worship it on this day than on others I do not certainly know how Ancient those Names are of Saturday Sunday Monday c. nor upon what occasion they were first taken up nor is it much to our purpose The most ancient Heathen Writer whom I know to have mentioned them is Dio Cassius who lived about the Year of our Lord 230. Who speaking of the Destruction of Ierusalem and the Temple tells us that the Iews had such a reverence for Saturn's day as that they would not Labour on that day for their Defense which the Romans understanding did on that day assault them and prevailed Against their Temple and Sabbath both at once Not as if the Iews did then call it Saturn's day nor am I sure that any other did then so call it for they called it their Sabbath-day But it was that day of the Week which in Dio's time was called Saturday But Dio speaks of it as a new Thing so to call the Days of the Week and which the Ancient Greeks he tells us knew not 'T was therefore not very Ancient And therefore he supposeth the Romans to have taken it up from the Egyptians Not the Old Egyptians of Moses's time but rather from those about the time of Ptolomy not of King Ptolomy but of Claudius Ptolomaeus the Astronomer or perhaps somewhat earlier when Astronomy there flourished and from whom the Romans had it In a Christian Writer I find it earlier than Dio in Iustin Martyr's Apology written about the Year of Christ 150. who mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Sun as the Christian Sabbath And Tertullian in his Apology mentions Saturday and Sunday And it may perhaps be found in Writers