Sun

The ancient Saxons worshipped the sun. This idol was placed in a temple, and there ador’d and sacrificed to, for that they believ’d the sun in the firmament did correspond with, or co-operate with, or act in this idol. The form was in the figure annex’d. It was made in the form of a half naked man, set upon a pillar, his face, as it were, brightened with gleams of fire, and holding with both his arms stretched out, a burning wheel upon his breast; the wheel signifying the course which he runs about the world, and the fiery gleams and brightness, the light and heat, wherewith he warms and comforts all things that live and grow. The worship of this idol being performed on a Sunday, hence that day takes its name.

Make hay while the Sun shines.

This proverb inculcates the same good apophthegm which several other of our English proverbs do; viz. that we ought to lay hold of time while time is, and let no favourable opportunity slip of doing what we have before us.

Definition taken from The Universal Etymological Dictionary, edited by Nathan Bailey (1736)

The Sun [Hieroglyph.] * Sun-setting