Augustine's "spiritual" Sabbath observance

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Observe the sabbath day is a command given more to us, because we are commanded to observe it spiritually. The Jews, you see, observe the sabbath day in a servile fashion, as an occasion for self-indulgence and getting drunk. How much better occupied would their women be spinning wool, instead of dancing on the balconies on that day! Heaven preserve us, brothers and sisters, from allowing that they really observe the sabbath! The Christian observes the sabbath in a spiritual way, by abstaining from servile work. What does that mean, after all, “from servile work”? From sin. And how do we prove that? Ask the Lord: Everybody who commits sin is the slave of sin (Jn 8:34). So then, the spiritual keeping of the sabbath is enjoined upon us as well.

Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the Gospel of John 1-40 (c. 406-20), trans. Edmund Hill, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Volume 12 (Hyde Park NY: New City Press, 2009), 3.19, p. 82.

Did Augustine really believe that the fourth commandment only applied to Christians in the New Testament age as simply a command to abstain from sin?
 
Observe the sabbath day is a command given more to us, because we are commanded to observe it spiritually. The Jews, you see, observe the sabbath day in a servile fashion, as an occasion for self-indulgence and getting drunk. How much better occupied would their women be spinning wool, instead of dancing on the balconies on that day! Heaven preserve us, brothers and sisters, from allowing that they really observe the sabbath! The Christian observes the sabbath in a spiritual way, by abstaining from servile work. What does that mean, after all, “from servile work”? From sin. And how do we prove that? Ask the Lord: Everybody who commits sin is the slave of sin (Jn 8:34). So then, the spiritual keeping of the sabbath is enjoined upon us as well.

Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the Gospel of John 1-40 (c. 406-20), trans. Edmund Hill, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Volume 12 (Hyde Park NY: New City Press, 2009), 3.19, p. 82.

Did Augustine really believe that the fourth commandment only applied to Christians in the New Testament age as simply a command to abstain from sin?
There might be some allegorizing going on here.
I don't know enough Augustine to say, but Allen says there is "apparent lessening of the importance of the literal Sabbath in Augustine’s conception of the Sabbath.” Edward Martin Allen, “Nicholas Bownde and the Context of Sunday Sabbatarianism.” Ph.D Thesis, Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Theology, 2008. Cited in Bownd, True Doctrine of the Sabbath (Naphtali Press and RHB, 2015), p. 78.
The sermon which puritans such as Bownd cited for Augustine's literal view of the Sabbath is now classed as spurious. Some portions of “De Dominica et aliis diebus festis pie celebrandis” (Migne, PL 39. 2274) have been attributed to Alcuin who lived some 300 years later.
 
Observe the sabbath day is a command given more to us, because we are commanded to observe it spiritually. The Jews, you see, observe the sabbath day in a servile fashion, as an occasion for self-indulgence and getting drunk. How much better occupied would their women be spinning wool, instead of dancing on the balconies on that day! Heaven preserve us, brothers and sisters, from allowing that they really observe the sabbath! The Christian observes the sabbath in a spiritual way, by abstaining from servile work. What does that mean, after all, “from servile work”? From sin. And how do we prove that? Ask the Lord: Everybody who commits sin is the slave of sin (Jn 8:34). So then, the spiritual keeping of the sabbath is enjoined upon us as well.

Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the Gospel of John 1-40 (c. 406-20), trans. Edmund Hill, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Volume 12 (Hyde Park NY: New City Press, 2009), 3.19, p. 82.

Did Augustine really believe that the fourth commandment only applied to Christians in the New Testament age as simply a command to abstain from sin?
The text is not very clear about what day is being referenced. Perhaps it can be understood in this way: as he speaks of the Jews he would be pointing to the end of the week Sabbath which, to the Christian, is no longer observed in a holy fashion and becomes a common day. The "Sabbath," then, as I understand it in Augustine and other church fathers, is not a reference to the setting aside of a day for rest and worship, but shorthand for a Judaizing element that has no place (along with other ceremonies) in the Christian church.

So (on our Saturday) we are free to labour as a way of keeping our hands occupied or, as he says here, not sinning. As far as the spiritual application is concerned, the Heidelberg Catechism essentially says the same thing:

Heidelberg Catechism Q 103: "What does God require in the fourth commandment?"

First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained; and that I, especially on the sabbath, that is, on the day of rest, diligently frequent the church of God, to hear his word, to use the sacraments, publicly to call upon the Lord, and contribute to the relief of the poor. Secondly, that all the days of my life I cease from my evil works, and yield myself to the Lord, to work by his Holy Spirit in me: and thus begin in this life the eternal sabbath.
 
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My simple reading of the text shows a distinction between observing the sabbath as a greatly-expanded legal burden and observing it as a heart-felt privilege afforded the followers of Christ.
 
Thanks for the replies, everyone. I am just reading Thomas Watson's Heaven Taken by Storm wherein he appeals to both Athanasius and Augustine to the effect that Christ's resurrection transferred the Sabbath to the Lord's Day (on page 34 of the Soli Deo Gloria edition). Does anyone here know which sources he was relying on for this conclusion?
 
I'm not sure if it is the right places, but Bownd cites them both but not to that effect under "change of the day." Both works are not classed as not by either men.
And therefore, St. Augustine says
plainly, Dominicum diem Apostoli et Apostolici viri, etc. “The apostles and men
of apostolical authority did ordain this day in the Church.”156
156. Augustine, Sermones de Tempore, serm. 251. [See note 79, page 78. This is now classed
in the spurious sermons, Sermones supposititios, Sermo CCLXXX (alias de Tempore 251). Hereafter
Sermones supposititios, s. 280. Portions of it are attributed to Alcuin who lived some three
hundred years later. “De Dominica et aliis diebus festis pie celebrandis,” PL 39. 2274.]

So that he says that the Church has the observation of this day not only
from the example of the apostles, and from their commandment; but that
they had it from the example and commandment of Christ. And thus for
the authority and antiquity of it, he makes not only the apostles, but Christ
Himself to be the first author of it to His apostles, and then to us, and to
the whole Church. Of which judgment also is the ancient father Athanasius:
Olim priscis hominibus. “In times past the Sabbath was in great price
with the ancient fathers, which solemnity the Lord has translated unto the
Lord’s Day.” Which he does not only say, that the day was changed, but that
God Himself, and not man made this change.167
167. Athanasius, Hom. de Sem. [Cf. S. Athanasius–Dubia, In Homiliam de Semente Admonitio,
PG 28, col. 143, §1. Opera ({Heidelbergæ:} ex officina Commeliniana, 1600; Gesuiti: Collegio
Romano, 1601) 835.]
 
I'm not sure if it is the right places, but Bownd cites them both but not to that effect under "change of the day." Both works are not classed as not by either men.
And therefore, St. Augustine says
plainly, Dominicum diem Apostoli et Apostolici viri, etc. “The apostles and men
of apostolical authority did ordain this day in the Church.”156
156. Augustine, Sermones de Tempore, serm. 251. [See note 79, page 78. This is now classed
in the spurious sermons, Sermones supposititios, Sermo CCLXXX (alias de Tempore 251). Hereafter
Sermones supposititios, s. 280. Portions of it are attributed to Alcuin who lived some three
hundred years later. “De Dominica et aliis diebus festis pie celebrandis,” PL 39. 2274.]

So that he says that the Church has the observation of this day not only
from the example of the apostles, and from their commandment; but that
they had it from the example and commandment of Christ. And thus for
the authority and antiquity of it, he makes not only the apostles, but Christ
Himself to be the first author of it to His apostles, and then to us, and to
the whole Church. Of which judgment also is the ancient father Athanasius:
Olim priscis hominibus. “In times past the Sabbath was in great price
with the ancient fathers, which solemnity the Lord has translated unto the
Lord’s Day.” Which he does not only say, that the day was changed, but that
God Himself, and not man made this change.167
167. Athanasius, Hom. de Sem. [Cf. S. Athanasius–Dubia, In Homiliam de Semente Admonitio,
PG 28, col. 143, §1. Opera ({Heidelbergæ:} ex officina Commeliniana, 1600; Gesuiti: Collegio
Romano, 1601) 835.]

Thanks, Chris. I believe that they are exactly the sources to which Thomas Watson was referring.
 
Elsewhere, Augustine did recognise the uniqueness of the Lord's Day:

As for us, though, brothers and sisters, when we have been fed at the banquet of salvation, let us carry out what remains to be done, so that we may complete the Lord’s Day with joyful spiritual celebrations and compare the joys of truth with the joys of futility.

Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the Gospel of John 1-40 (c. 406-20), trans. Edmund Hill, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Volume 12 (Hyde Park NY: New City Press, 2009), 7.24, p. 167.
 
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