Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Psalms 51:12

There are 21 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 1, page 82, footnote 4 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Ignatius (HTML)

Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)

Chapter V.—Pray for me. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 920 (In-Text, Margin)

... while I flee to the Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus Christ, and to the apostles as the presbytery of the Church. I do also love the prophets as those who announced Christ, and as being partakers of the same Spirit with the apostles. For as the false prophets and the false apostles drew [to themselves] one and the same wicked, deceitful, and seducing spirit; so also did the prophets and the apostles receive from God, through Jesus Christ, one and the same Holy Spirit, who is good, and sovereign,[Psalms 51:12] and true, and the Author of [saving] knowledge. For there is one God of the Old and New Testament, “one Mediator between God and men,” for the creation of both intelligent and sensitive beings, and in order to exercise a beneficial and suitable ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 444, footnote 12 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)

Chapter XVII.—The apostles teach that it was neither Christ nor the Saviour, but the Holy Spirit, who did descend upon Jesus. The reason for this descent. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3619 (In-Text, Margin)

2. This Spirit did David ask for the human race, saying, “And stablish me with Thine all-governing Spirit;”[Psalms 51:12] who also, as Luke says, descended at the day of Pentecost upon the disciples after the Lord’s ascension, having power to admit all nations to the entrance of life, and to the opening of the new covenant; from whence also, with one accord in all languages, they uttered praise to God, the Spirit bringing distant tribes to unity, and offering to the Father the first-fruits of all nations. Wherefore also the Lord promised to send the Comforter, ...

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 3, page 194, footnote 6 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)

The Soul's Vitality and Intelligence. Its Character and Seat in Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1589 (In-Text, Margin)

... Christian authorities. We are taught by God concerning both these questions—viz. that there is a ruling power in the soul, and that it is enshrined in one particular recess of the body. For, when one reads of God as being “the searcher and witness of the heart;” when His prophet is reproved by His discovering to him the secrets of the heart; when God Himself anticipates in His people the thoughts of their heart, “Why think ye evil in your hearts?” when David prays “Create in me a clean heart, O God,”[Psalms 51:12] and Paul declares, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” and John says, “By his own heart is each man condemned;” when, lastly, “he who looketh on a woman so as to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart,” ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 685, footnote 15 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Ethical. (HTML)

On Prayer. (HTML)

We Must Be Free Likewise from All Mental Perturbation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8840 (In-Text, Margin)

Nor merely from anger, but altogether from all perturbation of mind, ought the exercise of prayer to be free, uttered from a spirit such as the Spirit unto whom it is sent. For a defiled spirit cannot be acknowledged by a holy Spirit, nor a sad by a joyful, nor a fettered by a free.[Psalms 51:12] No one grants reception to his adversary: no one grants admittance except to his compeer.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 484, footnote 15 (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 3621 (In-Text, Margin)

... He knoweth our frame. For who can glory that he has a clean heart? And who can boldly say, that he is pure from sin? For we are all among the blameworthy. Let us still pray for them more earnestly, for there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, that, being converted from every evil work, they may be joined to all good practice; that God, the lover of mankind, will suddenly accept their petitions, will restore to them the joy of His salvation, and strengthen them with His free Spirit;[Psalms 51:12] that they may not be any more shaken, but be admitted to the communion of His most holy things, and become partakers of His divine mysteries, that appearing worthy of His adoption, they may obtain eternal life. Let us all still earnestly say on ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 617, footnote 8 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

The Decretals. (HTML)

The Epistles of Pope Callistus. (HTML)

To All the Bishops of Gaul. (HTML)
As to whether a priest may minister after a lapse. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2750 (In-Text, Margin)

... hesitation, that both the priests of the Lord and other believers may return to their honours after a proper satisfaction for their error, as the Lord Himself testifies by His prophet: “Shall he who falls not also rise again? and shall he who turns away not return?” And in another passage the Lord says: “I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he may turn, and live.” And the prophet David, on his repentance, said: “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.”[Psalms 51:12] And he indeed, after his repentance, taught others also, and offered sacrifice to God, giving thereby an example to the teachers of the holy Church, that if they have fallen, and thereafter have exhibited a right repentance to God, they may do both ...

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 4 (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 5845 (In-Text, Margin)

... having been caught up by a whirlwind into heaven, so his 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,[Psalms 51:12] and that a right spirit be renewed in his inward parts. 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 ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 246, footnote 14 (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 1972 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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;” and, “Stablish me with Thy directing Spirit;”[Psalms 51:12] 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 the apostle also says: “We having the same ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 451, footnote 15 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)

Abstract. (HTML)

The Question Answered. Justification is Grace Simply and Entirely, Eternal Life is Reward and Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3062 (In-Text, Margin)

... should boast”? Now, hear and understand. “Not of works” is spoken of the works which you suppose have their origin in yourself alone; but you have to think of works for which God has moulded (that is, has formed and created) you. For of these he says, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Now he does not here speak of that creation which made us human beings, but of that in reference to which one said who was already in full manhood, “Create in me a clean heart, O God;”[Psalms 51:12] concerning which also the apostle says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.” We are framed, therefore, that is, formed and created, “in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 373, footnote 9 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse II (HTML)
Texts explained; Sixthly, Proverbs viii. 22. Proverbs are of a figurative nature, and must be interpreted as such. We must interpret them, and in particular this passage, by the Regula Fidei. 'He created me' not equivalent to 'I am a creature.' Wisdom a creature so far forth as Its human body. Again, if He is a creature, it is as 'a beginning of ways,' an office which, though not an attribute, is a consequence, of a higher and divine nature. And it is 'for the works,' which implied the works existed, and therefore much more He, before He was created. Also 'the Lord' not the Father 'created' Him, which implies the creation was that of a servant. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2515 (In-Text, Margin)

46. That to be called creatures, then, and to be created belongs to things which have by nature a created essence, these passages are sufficient to remind us, though Scripture is full of the like; on the other hand that the single word ‘He created’ does not simply denote the essence and mode of generation, David shews in the Psalm, ‘This shall be written for another generation, and the people that is created shall praise the Lord;’ and again, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God[Psalms 51:12];’ and Paul in Ephesians says, ‘Having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to create in Himself of two one new man;’ and again, ‘Put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.’ For neither ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 103, footnote 1 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Gregory then makes an explanation at length touching the eternal Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 253 (In-Text, Margin)

... does not perceive any other good outside of Itself, by participation in which It could acquire any accession, but is always immutable, neither casting away what It has, nor acquiring what It has not: for none of Its properties are such as to be cast away. And if there is anything whatsoever blessed, unsullied, true and good, associated with Him and in Him, we see of necessity that the good and holy Spirit must belong to Him, not by way of accretion. That Spirit is indisputably a princely Spirit[Psalms 51:12], a quickening Spirit, the controlling and sanctifying force of all creation, the Spirit that “worketh all in all” as He wills. Thus we conceive no gap between the anointed Christ and His anointing, between the King and His sovereignty, between ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 159, footnote 8 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Oceanus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2337 (In-Text, Margin)

... transgressions. If holy David, meekest of men, committed the double sin of murder and adultery, he atoned for it by a fast of seven days. He lay upon the earth, he rolled in the ashes, he forgot his royal power, he sought for light in the darkness. And then, turning his eyes to that God whom he had so deeply offended, he cried with a lamentable voice: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,” and “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.”[Psalms 51:12] He who by his virtues teaches me how to stand and not to fall, by his penitence teaches me how, if I fall, I may rise again. Among the kings do we read of any so wicked as Ahab, of whom the scripture says: “there was none like unto Ahab which did ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 388, footnote 2 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4660 (In-Text, Margin)

... sin not you abide in the birth which God has given you. Yea, they who abide in that birth cannot sin. “For what communion hath light with darkness? Or Christ with Belial?” As day is distinct from night, so righteousness and unrighteousness, sin and good works, Christ and Antichrist cannot blend. If we give Christ a lodging-place in our hearts, we banish the devil from thence. If we sin and the devil enter through the gate of sin, Christ will immediately withdraw. Hence David after sinning says:[Psalms 51:12] “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,” that is, the joy which he had lost by sinning. “He who saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Christ is called the truth: “I am the way, the truth, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 125, footnote 19 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

Continuation of the Discourse on the Holy Ghost. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2126 (In-Text, Margin)

... knowledge of Him. He is also called the Spirit of promise, as the same Paul says, In whom ye also after that ye believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He is also called the Spirit of grace, as when he says again, And hath done despite to the Spirit of grace. And by many other such-like titles is He named. And thou heardest plainly in the foregoing Lecture, that in the Psalms He is called at one time the good Spirit, and at another the princely Spirit[Psalms 51:12]; and in Esaias He was styled the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel, and might, of knowledge, and of godliness, and of the fear of God. By all which Scriptures both those before and those now alleged, it is established, that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 383, footnote 11 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On Pentecost. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4258 (In-Text, Margin)

XIII. This was proclaimed by the Prophets in such passages as the following:—The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; and, There shall rest upon Him Seven Spirits; and The Spirit of the Lord descended and led them; and The spirit of Knowledge filling Bezaleel, the Master-builder of the Tabernacle; and, The Spirit provoking to anger; and the Spirit carrying away Elias in a chariot, and sought in double measure by Elissæus; and David led and strengthened by the Good and Princely Spirit.[Psalms 51:12] And He was promised by the mouth of Joel first, who said, And it shall be in the last days that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh (that is, upon all that believe), and upon your sons and upon your daughters, and the rest; and then afterwards by ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 15, footnote 4 (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 914 (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,” “a leading Spirit.”[Psalms 51:12] 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 worship that the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 30, footnote 14 (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 1124 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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 Himself says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another comforter.” Thus names are borne by the Spirit in common with the Father and the Son, and He gets these titles from His natural and close relationship. From what other source could they be derived? Again He is called royal,[Psalms 51:12] Spirit of truth, and Spirit of wisdom. “The Spirit of God,” it is said “hath made me,” and God filled Bezaleel with “the divine Spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge.” Such names as these are super-eminent and mighty, but they do not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 292, footnote 3 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the people of Evæsæ. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3111 (In-Text, Margin)

... make profession of our faith; as we make profession of our faith, so do we offer our doxology, not separating the Holy Ghost from Father and Son, nor preferring Him in honour to the Father, or asserting Him to be prior to the Son, as blasphemers’ tongues invent. Who could be so rash as to reject the Lord’s commandment, and boldly devise an order of his own for the Names? But I do not call the Spirit, Who is ranked with Father and Son, a creature. I do not dare to call slavish that which is royal.[Psalms 51:12] And I beseech you to remember the threat uttered by the Lord in the words, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men, neither in this world, neither in the ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs