Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Psalms 51:10

There are 19 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 10, footnote 11 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Clement of Rome (HTML)

First Epistle to the Corinthians (HTML)

Chapter XVIII.—David as an example of humility. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 85 (In-Text, Margin)

... Thy governing Spirit. I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation: my tongue shall exult in Thy righteousness. O Lord, Thou shalt open my mouth, and my lips shall show forth Thy praise. For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it; Thou wilt not delight in burnt-offerings. The sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a bruised spirit; a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.”[Psalms 51:1-17]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 301, footnote 3 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter I.—Preface—The Author’s Object—The Utility of Written Compositions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1815 (In-Text, Margin)

... “Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. Thou shalt make me to hear gladness and joy, and the bones which have been humbled shall rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins. Blot out mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my inward parts. Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and establish me with Thy princely spirit.”[Psalms 51:7-12]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 625, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XXXIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4755 (In-Text, Margin)

... see God belongs to the pure heart, out of which no longer proceed “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, the evil eye,” or any other evil thing. Wherefore it is said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” But as the strength of our will is not sufficient to procure the perfectly pure heart, and as we need that God should create it, he therefore who prays as he ought, offers this petition to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”[Psalms 51:10]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 630, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XLV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4787 (In-Text, Margin)

... comprehend them, since he speaks of us as being “utterly wedded to the flesh;” although if we live well, and in accordance with the teaching of Jesus, we hear this said of us: “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” He says also that we look upon nothing that is pure, although our endeavour is to keep even our thoughts free from all defilement of sin, and although in prayer we say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,”[Psalms 51:10] so that we may behold Him with that “pure heart” to which alone is granted the privilege of seeing Him. This, then, is what he proposes for our instruction: “Things are either intelligible, which we call substance—being; or visible, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 237, footnote 13 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)

Dogmatical and Historical. (HTML)
The Discourse on the Holy Theophany. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1830 (In-Text, Margin)

9. This is the Spirit that at the beginning “moved upon the face of the waters;” by whom the world moves; by whom creation consists, and all things have life; who also wrought mightily in the prophets, and descended in flight upon Christ. This is the Spirit that was given to the apostles in the form of fiery tongues. This is the Spirit that David sought when he said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”[Psalms 51:10] Of this Spirit Gabriel also spoke to the Virgin, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” By this Spirit Peter spake that blessed word, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” By this Spirit the rock of the Church was ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 460, footnote 11 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)

Sec. IV.—Of the Law (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3290 (In-Text, Margin)

... goats? Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High.” And in all the Scriptures in like manner He refuses their sacrifices on account of their sinning against Him. For “the sacrifices of the impious are an abomination with the Lord, since they offer them in an unlawful manner.” And again: “Their sacrifices are to them as bread of lamentation; all that eat of them shall be defiled.” If, therefore, before His coining He sought for “a clean heart and a contrite spirit”[Psalms 51:10] more than sacrifices, much rather would He abrogate those sacrifices, I mean those by blood, when He came. Yet He so abrogated them as that He first fulfilled them. For He was both circumcised, and sprinkled, and offered sacrifices and whole ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 482, footnote 5 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VIII. Concerning Gifts, and Ordinations, and the Ecclesiastical Canons (HTML)

Sec. II.—Election and Ordination of Bishops: Form of Service on Sundays (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3606 (In-Text, Margin)

... who is newly ordained bless them with this blessing: O God Almighty, unbegotten and inaccessible, who only art the true God, the God and Father of Thy Christ, Thy only begotten Son; the God of the Comforter, and Lord of the whole world; who by Christ didst appoint Thy disciples to be teachers for the teaching of piety; do Thou now also look down upon Thy servants, who are receiving instruction in the Gospel of Thy Christ, and “give them a new heart, and renew a right spirit in their inward parts,”[Psalms 51:10] that they may both know and do Thy will with full purpose of heart, and with a willing soul. Vouchsafe them an holy admission, and unite them to Thy holy Church, and make them partakers of Thy divine mysteries, through Christ, who is our hope, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 235, footnote 3 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

The Epistles of Clement. (HTML)

The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. (HTML)

David as an Example of Humility. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4093 (In-Text, Margin)

... Thy governing Spirit. I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation: my tongue shall exult in Thy righteousness. O Lord, Thou shalt open my mouth, and my lips shall show forth Thy praise. For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it; Thou wilt not delight in burnt-offerings. The sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a bruised spirit; a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.”[Psalms 51:1-17]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 476, footnote 5 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)

Book XIII. (HTML)
“The Spirit and Power of Elijah”—Not the Soul—Were in the Baptist. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5846 (In-Text, Margin)

... spirit had something of choice excellence, so that not only did it rest on Elisha, but also descended along with John at his birth; and that John, separately, “was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb,” and separately, “came before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah.” For it is possible for several spirits not only worse, but also better, to be in the same man. David accordingly asks to be established by a free spirit, and that a right spirit be renewed in his inward parts.[Psalms 51:10] But if, in order that the Saviour may impart to us of “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and reverence,” he was filled also with the spirit of the fear of the Lord; it is possible also ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 248, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

The Enchiridion. (HTML)

Faith Itself is the Gift of God; And Good Works Will Not Be Wanting in Those Who Believe. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1132 (In-Text, Margin)

... be thought that good works will be wanting in those who believe, he adds further: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We shall be made truly free, then, when God fashions us, that is, forms and creates us anew, not as men—for He has done that already—but as good men, which His grace is now doing, that we may be a new creation in Christ Jesus, according as it is said: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”[Psalms 51:10] For God had already created his heart, so far as the physical structure of the human heart is concerned; but the psalmist prays for the renewal of the life which was still lingering in his heart.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 52, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

On the Morals of the Catholic Church. (HTML)

Description of the Duties of Temperance, According to the Sacred Scriptures. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 101 (In-Text, Margin)

... heavenly," —that is, put off the old man, and put on the new. The whole duty of temperance, then, is to put off the old man, and to be renewed in God,—that is, to scorn all bodily delights, and the popular applause, and to turn the whole love to things divine and unseen. Hence that following passage which is so admirable: "Though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day." Hear, too, the prophet singing, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."[Psalms 51:10] What can be said against such harmony except by blind barkers?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 246, footnote 13 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)

On Original Sin. (HTML)

The Righteous Men Who Lived in the Time of the Law Were for All that Not Under the Law, But Under Grace. The Grace of the New Testament Hidden Under the Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1971 (In-Text, Margin)

... gave was able to liberate any man from the dominion of death, there were even then, too, at the time of the law, men of God who were not living under the terror and conviction and punishment of the law, but under the delight and healing and liberation of grace. Some there were who said, “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;” and, “There is no rest in my bones, by reason of my sins;” and, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit in my inward parts;”[Psalms 51:10] and, “Stablish me with Thy directing Spirit;” and, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” There were some, again, who said: “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” For they too were cleansed with the self-same faith with which we ourselves are. Whence ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 404, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)

The Calumny Concerning the Old Testament and the Righteous Men of Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2707 (In-Text, Margin)

... so understand “the old testament” in the manner in which the apostle spoke of it as “gendering from Mount Sinai into bondage”? But because in it was prefigured the new testament, the men of God who at that time understood this according to the ordering of the times, were indeed the stewards and bearers of the old testament, but are shown to be the heirs of the new. Shall we deny that he belongs to the new testament who says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”?[Psalms 51:10] or he who says, “He hath set my feet upon a rock, and directed my goings; and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even a hymn to our God”? or that father of the faithful before the old testament which is from Mount Sinai, of whom the apostle says, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 167, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter VI. 15–44. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 507 (In-Text, Margin)

... the foot of pride came, went out. Show that therefore he went out. “And let not the hands of sinners move me;” because of the foot of pride. Why sayest thou this? “They are fallen, all they that work iniquity.” Where are they fallen? In their very pride. “They were driven out, and they could not stand.” If, then, pride drove them out who were not able to stand, humility sends them in who can stand for ever. For this reason, moreover, he who said, “The bones that were brought low shall rejoice,”[Psalms 51:10] said before, “Thou shalt give joy and gladness to my hearing.” What does he mean by, “to my hearing”? By hearing Thee I am happy; because of Thy voice I am happy; by drinking within I am happy. Therefore do I not fall; therefore “the bones that were ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 48, footnote 10 (Image)

Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Defense of Eusebius Pamphilus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 323 (In-Text, Margin)

... like thunder “There came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind; and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.” And thus they declared unto all men the Christ of God, in accordance with that prophecy which says, “Behold he who confirms the thunder, creates the Spirit, and announces his Christ unto men”: the word “creates” being used instead of “sends down,” or appoints; and thunder in another figure implying the preaching of the Gospel. Again he that says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God,”[Psalms 51:10] said not this as if he had no heart; but prayed that his mind might be purified. Thus also it is said, “That he might create the two into one new man,” instead of unite. Consider also whether this passage is not of the same kind, “Clothe yourselves ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 557, footnote 10 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Personal Letters. (HTML)
Letter to Amun. Written before 354 A.D. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4596 (In-Text, Margin)

... an hundredfold. So then their unclean and evil objections had their proper solution long since given in the divine Scriptures. Strengthen then, father, the flocks under you, exhorting them from the Apostolic writings, guiding them from the Evangelical, counselling them from the Psalms, and saying, ‘quicken me according to Thy Word;’ but by ‘Thy Word,’ is meant that we should serve Him with a pure heart. For knowing this, the Prophet says, as if interpreting himself, ‘Make me a clean heart, O God[Psalms 51:10],’ lest filthy thoughts trouble me. David again, ‘And stablish me with Thy free spirit,’ that even if ever thoughts disturb me, a certain strong power from Thee may stablish me, acting as a support. Giving then this and the like advice, say with ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 374, footnote 30 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4176 (In-Text, Margin)

... which receiveth and digesteth the food of the Word, it were good also; not to make it a god by luxury and the meat that perisheth, but rather to give it all possible cleansing, and to make it more spare, that it may receive the Word of God at the very heart, and grieve honourably over the sins of Israel. I find also the heart and inward parts deemed worthy of honour. David convinces me of this, when he prays that a clean heart may be created in him, and a right spirit renewed in his inward parts;[Psalms 51:10] meaning, I think, the mind and its movements or thoughts.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 15, footnote 3 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Definitive conceptions about the Spirit which conform to the teaching of the Scriptures. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 913 (In-Text, Margin)

22. us now investigate what are our common conceptions concerning the Spirit, as well those which have been gathered by us from Holy Scripture concerning It as those which we have received from the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. First of all we ask, who on hearing the titles of the Spirit is not lifted up in soul, who does not raise his conception to the supreme nature? It is called “Spirit of God,” “Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father,” “right Spirit,”[Psalms 51:10] “a leading Spirit.” Its proper and peculiar title is “Holy Spirit;” which is a name specially appropriate to everything that is incorporeal, purely immaterial, and indivisible. So our Lord, when teaching the woman who thought God to be an object of local ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 30, footnote 9 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be glorified. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1119 (In-Text, Margin)

... “God is a Spirit,” and “the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord.” He is called holy, as the Father is holy, and the Son is holy, for to the creature holiness was brought in from without, but to the Spirit holiness is the fulfilment of nature, and it is for this reason that He is described not as being sanctified, but as sanctifying. He is called good, as the Father is good, and He who was begotten of the Good is good, and to the Spirit His goodness is essence. He is called upright,[Psalms 51:10] as “the Lord is upright,” in that He is Himself truth, and is Himself Righteousness, having no divergence nor leaning to one side or to the other, on account of the immutability of His substance. He is called Paraclete, like the Only begotten, as He ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs