TO ALL MAGISTRATES, TEACHERS, SCHOOL-MASTERS, AND PEOPLE IN christendom, Who Teach your Children the way of the Heathen, out of their Books, in Naming the Dayes, and Months, and times, and Observing your Feasts, as followeth.  
To that intent is this given forth, that you may come off them, and Teach your Children according to the Scriptures, in which you may see your Teaching is different from the Jews, and Christians in Old Time: But according to the Heathen since the Apostles dayes in the apostasy. Something concerning the naming of Times, Dayes, and Moneths, &c. And their derivations or Etymologies as they call them, which Children have been taught, and are taught out of Heathenish Authors, and from Heathenish Customs. That Parents may see, what their Children are taught, and whether they can consent that they may be so taught; and consider what benefit they reap by being taught those things, and such Authors as Treats of those things.  
WHen Children begin to Exercise the Latin Tongue in Schools, it is required of them usually to speak Latin one to another, and also to know the Reason and Original of Words, which in the most of Heathenish words, is fetched from Heathenish stories, Fables, and Traditions, and an Ability therein is esteemed an Excellency, as exceed●●g pleasing to the Heathenish Nature and Fancy, especially in such as are young, ●●d have not been first seasoned with that which is good, and profitable, and are ingenious and apprehensive, and apt to receive any thing which they are taught, but especial such things as are suitable to Nature, and pleasant to fancy, which are garnished with Eloquence, and smooth and pretty expression, and with an outward Glory and Excellency of man; For which end Poetry is said to have been first invented and used among the Greeks; And that Orpheus the Greek Poet and Musician by that means d●ew the savage wild People to build, and live in subjection.  
And for the same end many fabulous relations in Worships, and Religion were instituted, as Numa the second King of Rome, is said to have done, leaving many adorations and Rites, and Traditions, which he himself did not believe, but to svit the Peoples superstitious minds, and to subject them; And as the latter Romans have done in their Images, Legends or stories of their Saints, singing service and other outward, Visible, Vain, Glorious, Man-pleasing Worships, and Sermons made for itching ears, mixing with those the old Histories and fictions of the Heathen, and fancies o● Poets, and Sentences out of the philosophers; And so brought up Children in the exercise of these things, because they were agreeable to the multitude, and came to be admired and in request, and taught them to make Orations and Poems, in imitation of the Heathen Orators and Poets, containing the same kind of matter, and trained them up in that exercise, by continuance whereof they might become able to writ, and compose, and invent a Sermon, onely with this diffe●ence, that they should take a Text out of the Bible, and with the stuff that they had got out of these and other Authors to paint some of the Bibles m●tter, and mixed the Saints words and the Heathens words, and their own words and inventions together, which was the ripe fruit of that which was sown at School.  
Now that Paren●s may taste of that which their Children drink of in their Latin and Greek Authors, a few of those things, otherwise nonfit to be mentioned, may be instanced, which they have occasion to come to the knowledge of, and to use at the first, in the Latin Tongue; for when they begin to speak Latin, and have occasion to speak of the dayes of the Week, as when they ask one another, when must we repeat such and such a thing, then they must answer in Latin, Die Martis, die Venetis, die Saturni, &c. That is, on Mars day, Venus day, Saturn's day, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday; Now they must know the reason and derivation of these words and dayes, and must a●k one another of them, and if they cannot tell, perhaps they must have the Ferula and be beaten, or be ashamed as overcome, and he that can tell is praised, and glories in it; So the younger Schollers going to ask of the Elder that have red the Authors, they come to tell them those things which they have learned, and by o●casion thereof, exercise themselves with relations of many filthy obscene tales, and Heathenish sables and feigned wonders, and foolish fictions and actions, which young wanton wits are apt to delight in; as suppose as follows,  
The younger asks, when we say we must repeat our weeks work upon Friday, we by, Die Veneris; why is this day called so, and what is Venus that it is of the Feminine Gender? and Die Martis on Tuesday, Martis is of the Masculine Gender, and Die Mercury on Wednesday is so, and Die Jovis on Thursday, and Die Saturni on Saturd●y; why are these of the Masculine, and Venus of the Feminine? Give me a reason of this thing.  
The Elder scholar answers him, because Venus was a Goddesse, as in the Grammar lesson, she is called the Goddesse of Love; And Mars was a god, as thou knows, there he is called the God of war, and the rest that thou namedst are Masculines, because they were Gods.  
The younger asks, what is a Goddesse, and why are those called Gods? What, are there many Gods then, that every day in the mark hath a god, if Sol and Luna be gods too, then there are seven gods, are there not? The Elder answers, a Goddesse is a woman god, so Venus and Luna are said to have been women, and afterward by the Heathen came to be worshipped as gods. For Venus was a beautiful Whore, and was loved by Mars, whom Vulcan her husband, the god of Fire, the Smith-god, took together naked in his net, and brought in all the other gods and goddesses to see them lye naked together, that they might laugh at them, as Ovid the Poet ●rites, and as thou shalt find in his verse in the grammar lesson▪ So that Mars was a Male god, whose day is Tuesday, and Venus a Female god or goddesse, Friday, as also Luna the Moon, monday, which was a Female god or woman, and was worshipped under the name of Phoebe, and Diana the huntresse which Ovid writes actaeon saw naked amongst her companions, and therefore she turned him into a Sack, and made his own dogs devour him, so that the name of that day which was dedicated to her, is with a word of the Feminine Gender Female. But the day of the Sun Sunday is with a word of the Masculine Gender, for that day was consecrated to the Sun, who was worshipped under the name of Phoebus or Apoll●, which in the grammar lesson is called the god of Wisdom, and Poetry, and Medici●e, as in Ovid, who there tells how he would have ravished Daphne, but that Dian● his sister whose companion she was, turned her into a Laural three; So that he was a man, and so the name whereby the day is name is Male; So is Saturn, whereof Saturday hath its name, for he was a man whom the Poets writ to have married his Sister, and to devour his Children, and to have cut off the Geniral members of his Father, and thrown them into the Sea, whence sprung Venus, as thou shalt red in the Grammar lesson, whence she is called in Greek Aphrodite, whence the month called April is said to be der●ved, of 〈◇〉, Spuma, ●oth; for they say, of that was she bread, and coming out of the Sea in the I●●ed Cyprus, where she had a Temple and was worshipped, she was called Cyp●●, which word thou must have need of for thy verses, when thou comes to make yele, and many such like words, if thou wilt be a good Poet accounted as Delphecus for Apollo before name, which word is derived of Delphos which doth signify a Womb, because that the god or spirit that inspired that priestesse or prophetess( which is a woman prophet, and therefore Sacerdos is of the Femi●●●● gender as woll as the Masculine) gave forth answers or Oracles from her ●omb in Greek verse; And Mercury to whom was dedicated the day called Wednesday was a man, and afterward called him the god of theft and Gra●t, and the messenger of the● gods, and when you make verses, you must give him such terms and epithets as crafty and deceitful, &c. for he was begotten in theft of M●i●,( to whom is atributed one of the seven Stars, and one of the Months called May) by Jupiter the father of gods, or Jove which they derive from Juv●●s Pater a helping father, of whose th●evish whoredoms and Ravishments issued many of the gods, and whereof the Poets have a la●ge field and subject for their Poesies, and you that must imitate them for your p●ems and verses; and so ●f●erwards he was worshipped as King of the gods, because he banished and shut up in Hell his father Saturn, who had swallowed a ston or Image of a Child in stead of him, as they feign, this is the Author of the day called Thursday, and Juno was his queen of gods, of whom the month June is name.  
Thus People are your children Taught the reason of the names of the dayes and moneths from the Latin and Greek Authors; Now consider whether you can pled for it, that your Children should be taught to name the dayes after the names of these gods of which these things are related in honour of such gods as these, of which such filthy things and idle foolish fictions are sung by their Heathenish Poets and worshippers; If ye deny it, then why do ye yourselves teach them to name the dayes and months after them in English? For, Sunday, monday, Tuesda●, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, are the like or the same in English; For the Saxons from whom these names came, when they came into England were Heathens, and Worshippers of the Sun and Moon, and the ●lanets, as the rest of the Heathen, which they imitated and followed, and so had the Suns day, and Moons day, &c. And as the Babylonians made an Image of Bell or Belus, or Baal their King after his death in memory of him, and honoured it, and came to offer sacrifices to it as a god, and the Greeks like them made the Image of their Jupiter, and the latins of their Janus with two faces; and made him god of the year, and honoured him with the first of their moneths, and called it after his name January, which ye yet call so, and lets your Children call it so. So the Saxons did to their leader Tuisco, which they writ did led them from the Tower of Babel, and was chief Ruler of the German Nation, who in honour of him after his death, called Tuisco his day, which ye and your children call Tuesday; their Mar's day, because that Mars is over wars and contentions; And of Wooden another of their Captains, their mercury, for there were many Mercuries, they made a god and worshipped him, and name one of their dayes after him Wodensday, Wednesday as you & your Children call it; And their Jupiter, they called Thor, for his Image wore on his head a Crown of Gold, & round about were set twelve bright Golden Stars, and they were persuaded that being displeased, he did cause lightning and Thunder; This answers to the Greeks Zeus, and Latins Jove, whom they called king of gods, and was attended with twelve Celestial gods, and caused Thunder. And so after this Thor they name his day Thursday, as ye and your Children do; And so ye do Friday of Friga their Idol, their Venus, for they reputed her the maker of love and pleasure, and accounted her day the day of gladness and wooing; And ye yet retain Saturday of Saater another of their Idols, which by his Image appears to have been the same with Saturn the devourer of Children, and for that was shut up in hell, as is said, and the same with Molech to whom the Jews sacrificed Children and burnt their sons and daughters unto Devils. So see what gods( or devils) you and your Children do make mention of and honour by calling your dayes and Months after them, such as Saturdays father, and of the month February which is so called of Februus, a name of Pluro the god of Hell, to whom they sacrificed in that month and had his feastival dayes called Febr●s; and sacrificed to his Queen proserpina the queen of Hell, and offered and used Tapers and Candles, which afterwards the Christians as is said, thinking to convert to a better use offered to the Virgin Mary called by them the Queen of Heaven, and at her mass offered Candles; And so that time ye and your Children call yet candlemas, and in stead of the feasts of that Saturn and their furious drunken feasts of their god of Wine Bacchus, they observed the riotous and reveling times of Shrovetide, and christmas, and exercised sports and games, and invented plays with the Devil in them, Lords of misrule, Ma●ks and monstrous Vizards, like Mar●●n in whose times they are said to have begun, which the Saxons, of whom c●●e the English, soon after imitated; & instead of their Heathenish Temples set up Churches which are the mass houses, which now the Protestants call ●he Church; And Diana's Temple became Pauls Church in London; And their Easter, which is i● the month called March became the Christians Easter, and so you and your Children call it.  
Are these sound and wholesome words, hath the Scriptures such? Is this good communication? Are these good customs or good manners? Or do they not corrupt good manners? Do ye well in giving your Children these Books? Is this good learning of the Tongues? Or is not the tongue exercised in these things set on fire of Hell, and sets on fire the course of Nature, and is in a world of Iniquity? Consider what you sand your Children to School for, and what you would have them to learn, and what profit you expect they should gain, and what kind of knowledge you would have them attain to; Is it the stories and fables, and fictions, and transformations, and feigned miracles, and ravishments, and joys, and fancies, and furies, and contentions, and genealogies of the Heathens Goddess and Goddesses, and the rest of their acts and monuments, that you would have your Children learn and understand, and get into their memories and fancies to be exercised about, while in the mean time you call them Christians, that in their Baptism did promise to forsake the Devil and all his works, and yet you give them the works of Devils to exercise themselves in for their work; For that which they call their exercise in School, when it is most and fineliest fraught with the composure of the works of those Divels, it is amongst Scholars accounted the best and finest exercise, and most plausible and praise worthy, and shows the finest wit and fancy, and the greatest reading, and such a one is called a fine Poet, or Orator, or good scholar, or of rare invention. May they not attain to the knowledge of the Tongues without these? And doth the Ignorance of these, abate any thing from the dignity of Speech? Is it any thing but the Ignorance of evil? And is not that good to be ignorant of that which is evil? Is not the speech and mentioning and memory of these things to fail, and with the Jews? Or are they to be continued and propagated in Children, and set up and nourished in the finest wits, to bring forth such fruits as they have done in the whole World? Is this good Education and bringing up of Children, that are called Christians, and the Children of Christians? If you say we sand them not for Religion, but to learn the Languages, that they may be serviceable in the Common-wealth; And so they may learn the Speech, and not ●●●rd the matter? Answer, That is denied, for the Speech cannot be learned and understood, without the understanding of the matter and sense, and they that are not capable of the one are not capable of the other, and they that are apt to apprehended the Speech are more apt to apprehended such matter, as is said afore. And in so saying, ye go against your own Rule, Authority and examples for those things; For in the preface to the Grammar, Masters are exhorted to ●●ch Children at the first, some little Book containing not only the Elegance of the Tongue, but also some good plain lesson of godliness and Honesty. And the council of Queen Elizabeth says that the Heathen Poets being taught in schools, tends to the nourishment of 'vice, rather than the advancement of virtue; And so gave command that in stead thereof Orlands Book, in regard of the matter as well as the verse, should be taught and learned in Schools. So that these Common-wealths men, did not think it to be good for the Common-wealth to learn the Heathen F●e●s works, and the Christians before the apostasy also rejected them; if therefore you pled for them; And would have them taught, you discent from your o●n Rule for teaching, and your Authority, and your best examples, The ancient Christians, and pled for that which was set up again in the time of apostasy, and hath poisoned all Christendom in schools first, and after in colleges. Now see who is most like to poison your Children, those that teach such things, or those that keep to sound and wholesome words.  
R. R.   

To all School-masters, Priests, and Teachers, and Magistrates, that be Christians.  
Whether or no the way of the Heathen this hath not been that ye have learned, and do teach in your schools to this day; Therefore to you all is this paper, that ye may see how ye be out of Scriptures, and have not learned and taught your children according to the Scriptures of Truth, nor according to the Jews, nor the true Christians, before the apostasy, in the dayes of Old, among the Apostles; But according to the Heathen. Now number yourselves, the Dayes, and the Moneths, and the Fathers of them.  
THe first day, Sunday, who was sundays Father, Phoebus the god of the S●●, or the planet of the Sun, whose Image the Saxons made and worshipped; the second day monday, Phoebe or Diana, the Goddesse of the Moon, and the Saxons Idol; The third day Mars the god of War, and Tuisco the Saxons Idol, Tuesday; The fourth day, Mercury the god of Craft, and the Idol Wooden, Wednesday, The fifth day, Jupiter the Father of the Heathen god●, and the Idol Thor, Thursday; The sixth day, Venus the goddesse of Love, and the Idol Friga, Friday; The seventh, Saturn, shut up in Hell, and the Idol Saater, Saturday.  
Of the first month March, Mars the god of war; of the second April, Venus the goddesse of Lust; the third May, Maia, the Mother of Mercury, the Heathen god; the fourth month June, of Juno, the Queen of the Heathen gods; the fifth month July, of Julius who was made one of their own inferior gods, the sixth month August, of Augustus, another of those their Minor gods, the seven●h Eighth, ninth, and Tenth moneths were instituted by Romulus the builder of Rome; the Eleventh month by his Successor, called January of Janus their god, and the Twelfth; February of Februus, the name of the god of Hell.  
Now ye that go under the name of Christians have both that name, and are found in these goings of the ways of the Heathen, and not come so far as the ways of the Jews, who were not by the command of God to walk in the ways of the Heathen; And so of the Christians short, which followed Christ, who 〈◇〉 the end of the Jews, which both Christians and Jews differ from you Apo●●●te Christians which have that name; And they differ from you and the Pleathe●, who calls the dayes, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh, and calls the moneths twelve, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. Therefore like whom do you teach your Children, and whose Books have been your Examples, and which have ye practised and followed? And whose writings have you most delighted in, and whose have been to you the most mouthed, the writings and practices of the Jews and Christians, or the Heathen, which ye may s●y is our native Country and our Fathers house, whose Language and Speech ye have loved best; And what tell you us of the Christians of Old time, how they name the Dayes and the Moneths, or the Jews either who was taught by the Lord God, and directed by Moses the Prophet of God, who to name them? We will follow the counsel of our Old Fathers, Tuise●, and wooden, Sater, and Thor, Saturn, and Jupiter, and Mars, and Mercury, and apollo, &c. Do you think that Moses and the Christians of Old, and the Apostles were wiser then these? If these had not been good ways, and good Teaching, our School-masters, and Ministers, and Magistrates, would have had them down ere now; who speaks against them, but a company of giddy headed people, which ye call Penaticks that runs after the Christians of Old, which lives in the end of Moses, which troubled our Diana in Old time, and some of our Poets mocked at them, as one Paul, who called the dayes not after our Fathers names: And what do you tell us of fi●st day, 2d. day, first month, 2d. month, contrary to our Fathers mentioned in the Paper. And some people will say, that they sand their Children to School to learn manners too; And if they be not taught to Scrape, curtsy, and Cap, they are ready to say they are not taught good manners, and that they will say of friends that Teaches them, who can distinguish the good manners from such things; and not to observe such things, they call it undecent, and calls them unmannerly; And that they want Modesty that honours not a man, or woman with such things, and call them impudent that goes before a rich man, or not observing the customary compliments and doing their honours as they call it, and they that do it, they call them well bread, &c. And they that do not ill bread. Now this again is contrary both to the Scripture, and their own rule, to restrain and limit good manners, Modesty, Decency, and honour to such things; as to Cap, Scrap, and Curtsy, &c. And to place it in those things, for the words themselves do bear another thing; and some Books and Heathenish Authors themselves that the Parents and School masters do give the Children to learn, do not place their honour and decency, and modesty, and manners in that; And they cannot say that their chief Author of good manners did call it any good manners at all to put off the Hat, or that he used to do so, or that it was done, after the manner of the Romans( nor of the Babylonians neither) and they were the men that were renowned and honoured through the World, and called manners Mores, another thing, and in their tongue is used for conditions, and calls a well conditioned youth, a well mannerd youth, and an ill conditioned youth, ill mannerd, and call● manners the same that he calls Offices or Duties, and those he does not place in doing their Congyes, Curtsyes, Hats, Scrapings, &c. as they now use; But in the exercise of all virtues, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, &c. And all honesty, and that he calls decency and decent, which significi comely. and that which doth become one, and that whatsoever i● ho●●st, is comely; And that all men would admire and love honesty, if it could 〈◇〉 seen with eyes( Hats and Scrapings are seen enough) which is hono●rable for honesty and honour have relation, and are both derived of charge or weight, as in other Tongues also; So that lightness and vapouring and compleme●●● and light fashions too, which is now accounted Gallantry and Decency, are 〈◇〉 so Honourable nor Comely, nor Modest, for they are out of the Moderation which both comes of a word which signifies Measure; And to do or use things out of measure, without measure, there is modesty, moderation lost, and temperance, where there is no bridling, and that is ill breeding.  
And we see that the heads of the Genty, heads and great mens manners, Breeding, Decency and Comlienesse, and Modesty and honours, lies in doffing Hats one to another, Scraping one to another, and Curtsying one to another and saying the word you one to another, which they that do not are Fo●ls, Idiots, Clowns, and ill bread; not saying the word You to one, not Scraping, not Curtsying, not Dossing the Hat, puts them besides all their Religion, and that which they have been taught in their teaching Books, what is good manners, Modesty, and what is honour; so contrary to their own rule they have gone and degenerated. So this is for people to consider, and mind before they act; red over the Scriptures that Teaches of those things, and their own teaching Boo●s; Whether a man may not be truly Honourable, Comely, Decent and Modest, and yet never doff the Hat, nor Scrape with the Leg, nor Curtsy, nor say the word You; Which is the Worlds Manners, and Decency, and Modesty, and comeliness.  
G. F.  
THE END.   

LONDON. Printed for Thomas Simmons, at the Sign of the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate. 1660.