Key Arguments

• Augustine prays for ‘the peace of quietness, the peace of the sabbath, a peace with no evening’, and contrasts it with the present ‘most beautiful order of very good things’ that ‘will complete its course and then pass away; for in them by creation there is both morning and evening.’
• He affirms that ‘The seventh day has no evening and has no ending. You sanctified it to abide everlastingly’, explicitly linking it to perpetual duration.
• He interprets God’s scriptural ‘resting’ on the seventh day as a prophecy of human destiny: ‘This utterance in your book foretells for us that after our works which, because they are your gift to us, are very good, we also may rest in you for the sabbath of eternal life.’
• He adds a reciprocal aspect: ‘There also you will rest in us, just as now you work in us. Your rest will be through us, just as now your works are done through us.’
• He then qualifies this with a doctrine of divine eternity: ‘you, Lord are always working and always at rest. Your seeing is not in time, your movement is not in time, and your rest is not in time.’
• God’s acting causes our temporal experience of seeing and resting: ‘Yet your acting causes us to see things in time, time itself, and the repose which is outside time.’
• Thus the sabbath day figures both an eschatological state for creatures and God’s timeless, changeless beatitude expressed in and through them.

Source Quotes

To all the ministerial officers necessary to bring the faithful to perfection in this life, you willed that the same faithful should provide for their temporal needs good works which could be fruitful for them hereafter. All these things we see, and they are very good, because you see them in us, having given us the Spirit by which we see them and love you in them. xxxv (50) ‘Lord God, grant us peace; for you have given us all things’ (Isa. 26: 12), the peace of quietness, the peace of the sabbath, a peace with no evening (2 Thess. 3: 16). This entire most beautiful order of very good things will complete its course and then pass away; for in them by creation there is both morning and evening. xxxvi (51) The seventh day has no evening and has no ending.

3: 16). This entire most beautiful order of very good things will complete its course and then pass away; for in them by creation there is both morning and evening. xxxvi (51) The seventh day has no evening and has no ending. You sanctified it to abide everlastingly.

3: 16). This entire most beautiful order of very good things will complete its course and then pass away; for in them by creation there is both morning and evening. xxxvi (51) The seventh day has no evening and has no ending. You sanctified it to abide everlastingly. After your ‘very good’ works, which you made while remaining yourself in repose, you ‘rested the seventh day’ (Gen.

2: 2–3). This utterance in your book foretells for us that after our works which, because they are your gift to us, are very good, we also may rest in you for the sabbath of eternal life. xxxvii (52) There also you will rest in us, just as now you work in us. Your rest will be through us, just as now your works are done through us.

2: 2–3). This utterance in your book foretells for us that after our works which, because they are your gift to us, are very good, we also may rest in you for the sabbath of eternal life. xxxvii (52) There also you will rest in us, just as now you work in us. Your rest will be through us, just as now your works are done through us. But you, Lord are always working and always at rest.

Your rest will be through us, just as now your works are done through us. But you, Lord are always working and always at rest. Your seeing is not in time, your movement is not in time, and your rest is not in time. Yet your acting causes us to see things in time, time itself, and the repose which is outside time. xxxviii (53) As for ourselves, we see the things you have made because they are.

Your seeing is not in time, your movement is not in time, and your rest is not in time. Yet your acting causes us to see things in time, time itself, and the repose which is outside time. xxxviii (53) As for ourselves, we see the things you have made because they are. But they are because you see them.38 We see outwardly that they are, and inwardly that they are good.

Key Concepts

• ‘Lord God, grant us peace; for you have given us all things’ (Isa. 26: 12), the peace of quietness, the peace of the sabbath, a peace with no evening (2 Thess. 3: 16).
• This entire most beautiful order of very good things will complete its course and then pass away; for in them by creation there is both morning and evening.
• The seventh day has no evening and has no ending. You sanctified it to abide everlastingly.
• This utterance in your book foretells for us that after our works which, because they are your gift to us, are very good, we also may rest in you for the sabbath of eternal life.
• There also you will rest in us, just as now you work in us. Your rest will be through us, just as now your works are done through us.
• But you, Lord are always working and always at rest. Your seeing is not in time, your movement is not in time, and your rest is not in time.
• Yet your acting causes us to see things in time, time itself, and the repose which is outside time.

Context

Book XIII, xxxv–xxxvii (50–52): As he turns to the seventh day, Augustine develops a theology of eternal sabbath rest as the consummation of creation and the Church, emphasizing both God’s immutable, timeless rest and work and the creaturely participation in that rest after temporal good works.