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Originally Posted by armourbearer  Quote:
Originally Posted by VirginiaHuguenot Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Ritchie I think Maurice Grant's biography of Donald Cargill No King But Christ (published by Evangelical Press) goes into this a bit. | Yes, Grant notes that John Gibb opposed any usage of days of the week or months based on their pagan nature; his objection was not confined to the Lord's Day/Sabbath v. Sunday. Grant has a lengthy footnote on the subject. | Jeremiah Burroughs on Hosea also has an interesting discussion on this idea. | Jeremiah Burroughs, An Exposition of the Prophecy of Hosea, p. 147 (on Hosea 2.16-17): Quote: |
It were good therefore, seeing God hates and loathes it so much, that we should hate and loath it also, and therefore cast out even the name and memory of it; it were a happy thing if the names of popish, as well as heathenish, idols could be banished from the church; but I know not how it happens that we Christians still retain the use of them; the very days of the week among us are called by the names of planets, or heathen gods: not that I think it a sin, when it is the ordinary language of the world, to speak so as may be understood, for the apostle mentions the name of Castor and Pollux; but if there could be an alteration by general consent, (as our brethren in New England have), it were desirable; and still more so, that our children might not be educated in the use of heathen poems, whereby the names of heathen idols are kept up fresh amongst us: the papists themselves acknowledge so much in the Rhemish Testament, in their notes on Rev. i.10: "The name Sunday is heathenish, as all other of the week-days, some imposed by the Romans after the name of planets, some from certain idols which the Saxons worshipped, and to which they dedicated their days before they were Christians. These names the church rejecting, has appointed to call the first day Dominic, (the Lord's) the others by the name of Feries, successivly to the last day of the week, which she calls by the old name of sabbath, because that was of God, and not by imposition of the heathen." And in their Annotations upon Luke xxiv.1, "The first day of the sabbath; that is, the first after the Sabbath, which is our Lord's day. And from the apostle, 1 Cor. xvi.2, commanding a collection to be made on the first day of the sabbath, we learn," (say they) "both the keeping that day as the sabbath, and the church's naming the days of the week the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of the sabbath, and so on, to be apostolical, and the calling of the days of the week, the second, the third, the fourth, &c., to be likewise apostolical, which St. Sylvester afterward named the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Feriam." Thus you have the papists acknowledging the Lord's day to be apostolical, and the calling of the days of the week the second, the third, the fourth, &c., to be likewise apostolical. The heathenish Roman names of the days were taken from the seven planets: 1. Sol, thence Dies solis, Sunday dedicated to the sun. 2. Luna, Monday, dedicated to the moon. 3. Mars, Tuesday, dedicated to Mars. Our Tuesday is a Saxon name, from Tuisco, who they say was, since the Tower of Babel, chief leader and ruler of the German nation, who, in honour of him, called this day Tuesday, Tuisco's day. 4. Mercurius, to whom Wednesday is dedicated, and we call it so, is from the Saxon's Woden, who was a great prince among them, and whose image they adored after his death. 5. Jupiter, to whom Thursday is dedicated; so called by us from the Saxon Thor, the name of an idol which they anciently worshipped. 6. Venus, to whom our Friday, which name is given it from Friga, an idol of the Germans. This idol was an hermaphrodite, and reputed to be the giver of plenty, and the causer of amity; the same perhaps which the Romans called Venus. 7. Saturnus, dedicated to Saturn, whence our Saturday; or, as others think, from Seater, an idol of the Germans. Exod. xxiii.13, we have this charge, "In all things that I have said unto you, be circumspect: and make no mention of the names of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth." And Psal. xvi.4, David professes he will not take the names of idols into his lips.
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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project
"On land, at sea, at home, abroad, / I smoke my pipe and worship God." -- J.S. Bach
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