“3. Gesner, who, in his Latin Thesaurus published in 1749, gives both meanings to the word Dominicum. For that of the Lord’s supper he quotes Cyprian; for that of a church he quotes Cyprian and also Hillary.”[508]
Domville states other facts of interest bearing on this point, and then pays his respects to Mr. Gurney as follows:—
“It thus appearing that the reference made by Bishop Andrews to the ‘Acts of Martyrs’ completely fails to establish his dictum respecting the question alleged to have been put to the martyrs, and it also appearing that there existed strong and obvious reasons for not placing implicit reliance upon that dictum, what are we to think of Mr. Gurney’s regard for truth, when we find he does not scruple to tell his readers that the ‘stated day’ mentioned in Pliny’s letter as that on which the Christians held their religious assemblies, was ‘clearly the first day of the week,’ is proved by the very question which it was customary for the Roman persecutors to address to the martyrs, Dominicum servasti?—‘Hast thou kept the Lord’s day?’ For this unqualified assertion, prefixed as it is by the word ‘clearly,’ in order to make it the more impressive, Mr. Gurney is without any excuse.”[509]
The justice of Domville’s language cannot be questioned when he characterizes this favorite first-day argument as—
“One of those daring misstatements of facts so frequent in theological writings, and which, from the confident tone so generally assumed by the writers on such occasions, are usually received without examination, and allowed, in consequence, to pass current for truth.”[510]
The investigation to which this statement has been subjected, shows, 1. That no such question as, Hast thou kept the Lord’s day? is upon record as proposed to the martyrs in the time of Pliny. 2. That no such question was asked to any martyr prior to the commencement of the fourth century. 3. That a single instance of martyrdom in which any question of the kind was asked, is all that can be claimed. 4. That in this one case, which is all that has even the slightest appearance of sustaining the story under examination, a correct translation of the original Latin shows that the question had no relation whatever to the observance of Sunday! All this has been upon the assumption that the Acta Martyrum, in which this story is found, is an authentic work. Let Mosheim testify relative to the character of this work for veracity:—
“As to those accounts which have come down to us under the title of Acta Martyrum, or, the Acts of the Martyrs, their authority is certainly for the most part of a very questionable nature; indeed, speaking generally, it might be coming nearer to the truth, perhaps, were we to say that they are entitled to no sort of credit whatever.”[511]
Such is the authority of the work from which this story is taken. It is not strange that first-day historians should leave the repetition of it to theologians.
Such are the facts respecting this extraordinary falsehood. They constitute so complete an exposure of this famous historical argument for Sunday as to consign it to the just contempt of all honest men. But this is too valuable an argument to be lightly surrendered, and moreover it is as truthful as are certain other of the historical arguments for Sunday. It will not do to give up this argument because of its dishonesty; for others will have to go with it for possessing the same character.