SECT. 16.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. olt
reason of the assignation of the planetary names to the days of the week; which he affirms to have had its original from the Egyptians. And two reasons he tells us that he had heard of the especial assig- nation of their several names unto the several days, in the order wherein they are commonly used. The first is, that it was taken from the harmony dé reocépuy, or the musical note of diatessaron. For beginning, saith he, with Saturn in the highest sphere, and so passing unto the fourth in order, it is the Sun, and so throughout in the whole revolution. His other reason is, that taking the day and night, beginning with the first hour, and assigning the name of a planet to each hour, beginning with Saturn for the reason before mentioned, and the succeeding hours to the other planets in their order, so renewing the numerations to the end of the four and twenty hours, the first hour of the next day falls to the Sun, and so of the day following to the moon, and the remainder to the other planets in the order commonly ascribed unto them. What there is in these conjectures I know not; but both of them give the precedency of the first day, as they are fixed, unto that which, in the true and natural order of the days, is the last. There isa good account given us of this matter by Johannes Philoponus, spi xooworoitus, or de Creation. Mund. lib. vii. cap. xiv.: ’Exeivo ye way cuurepadynrar rio avbpumos exra wovas civus jutpas, ulrives cig EuuTas cvanunAovmevas roy dAov gester xpévov. “This,” saith he, “is consented unto amongst all men, that there are only seven days, which, by a revolution into themselves, compose the whole of time; whereof we can assign no other reason but that only which is given by Moses. The Grecians, indeed, ascribe the seven days to the seven planets,—the first to the Sun, the second to the Moon, the third to Mars, the fourth to Mer- cury, the fifth to Jupiter, the sixth to Venus, the seventh to Saturn; and hereby they first acknowledge that there are but seven days, whereof all time consisteth: but further they can give no reason why the days are so disposed of unto the planets; for why did they not rather constitute twelve days, from the twelve parts of the zodiac, through which the sun passing perfecteth the year? Nor can any reason be assigned from the motions of the planets why any one of the days is inscribed to any of them. It is most likely, therefore, that the Gentiles, as they without just reason or cause dedicated the planets by the names of demons and heroes, so when they observed that there were seven days acknowledged by all, and that the planets were so many in number, they did according to their pleasure, in the two equal numbers, assigning one day to one planet, another to another.” To which he adds truly, Mévog dpa riy airiav rod ECdomadsnod ra ipmepov apidmot Seddev guavevodeis 6 wéyas roig avbpirosg amodedwne Mwvo7s-—“Only the great Moses, being divinely inspired, hath de-
312 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC. II.
livered unto men the true reason of the septenary number of the days.” So far he. There seems to be some reason for assigning the conduct of time to the sun, or calling the first day by his name, as also of adjoining the moon unto him in the next place; for the sue- cession of the sun, though created the fourth day, in point of use, unto that diffused light which was created the first day, with its being the instrumental cause and measure of every day, with the tra- dition of the appointment of sun and moon to rule and distinguish times and seasons, with the sensible effects and operations of them, might easily give them the pre-eminence by common consent in giving names unto the days of the week. The other names were added and applied according to some prevailing fictions concerning the planets, and their respect unto men and their actions. But the hebdomadal period of time was fixed long before the imposition of those names prevailed among the Grecians and the Romans; which perhaps is not very anciently, as Dio thinks, though they derived them from the Chaldeans and Egyptians. And that the acknow- ledgment of seven days gave occasion to fix unto them the names of the seven planets, and not that the observation of the seven planets gave occasion to compute the days of the world by sevens, is mani- fest from hence, in that many nations admitting of the hebdomadal revolution of time gave the days in it quite other names, as various reasons or occasions did suggest, them unto them. In the ancient Celtic or German tongue, and all languages thence deriving, the sun and moon only, on the reasons before mentioned, giving name to the leading days of the week, the rest of the days are distinguished and signalized with the names of the conductors of their first great colonies in the north-western parts of the world; for to fancy that Tuisco is the same with Mars, Woden with Mercury, Thor with Jupiter, and Frea with Venus, is to fancy what we please, without the least ground of probability. Nor did the Celtz ever call the planets by those names. So that if there be any allusion in those names unto those of the Grecians and Romans, it was not taken from their natural speculation about the planets, but from their pleas- ing fictions about deified heroes, wherein they were imitated by most nations of the world. The English and Dutch have taken in Satur- day from Saturn; other nations of the same extract retain their own occasional names. The observation, therefore, of the seven planets gave neither rise, reason, cause, nor occasion, to this original period of time in a hebdomadal revolution of days. And hence Theo- philus Antiochenus, lib. ii. ad Antolychum, affirms that “all mortal men agreed in the appellation of the seventh day ;” whose testimony is of good force, though himself mistake the original of that appella- tion. For he tells us that cup’ ‘ECpaos xareirar oC Carey, ‘EAAguori