Sinners Of Earth And Heaven

Praevaricantes deputavi omnes peccatores terrae, ideo dilexi justitias tuas. Semper Prophetae sermo longe se et ultra communem sensum tendit. Nos enim praevaricatores eos existimamus, quis susceptam fidem et cognitionem Dei adeptam relinquunt; aliud pollicitos, et aliud nunc agentes. Sed hic praevaricatores esse existimantur omnes peccatores terrae: nullus excipitur, generaliter ad omnes praevaricationis nomen refertur. Lex enim veluti naturalis est, injuriam nemini inferre, nil alienum praeripere, fraude ac perjurio abstinere, alieno conjugio non insidiari. Novit et hanc Apostolus legem, dicens: Cum enim nationes, quae legem non habent, naturaliter secundum legem faciunt, tales homines legem non habentes sibi ipsi sunt lex, qui ostendunt opus legis scriptum in cordibus suis.  Ergo praevaricatores existimantur, qui quod a naturali lege accipiunt, derelinquunt. Furem quis deprehensum, aut adulterum, aut homicidam arguet lege naturae. Sed si in his ipse versetur, praevaricator est legis. Novit etiam cum ait peccatores terrae, alios esse et coeli peccatores. Audiamus enim evangelicae praedicationis prodigum filium perditum atque mortuum, de peccato suo patri confitentem: Peccavi, inquit, pater in coelum et coram te. Quis quis coelestis doctinae, et spiritalis gratia particeps factus in peccato demorabitur; non terrae peccator est ille, sed coeli. Omnes enim credentes in se Dominus noster Jesus Christus coexcitavit, et collocavit in coelestibus: ex quibus qui decedit, tamquam coeli peccator arguitur. Cum igitur Propheta peccatores terrae praevaricatores esse existimet, quia naturae legem peccando  transgressi sint; ob hoc ipse testimonia Dei diligit, quia cum praevaricatio sit decedere ex lege naturae; tamen jam sine venia ex coelesti lege discessio. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis,Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXVIII Source: Migne PL 9.604b -605b

I have deemed all the sinners of the earth to be transgressors, therefore I have loved your testimonies. 1 Invariably the speech of the Prophet stretches far beyond the common understanding. For we judge them to be transgressors, who having taken up the faith and the knowledge of God abandon it, some in what is promised and some by what they do. But here they who are judged to be transgressors are 'all the sinners of the earth', with no one excluded, and so the name must refer to all transgressors in general. For there is a natural law, that one should not harm another and not take what is another's, and that one should abstain from perjury, and not seduce another's wife. And this law the Apostle is aware of, saying, 'For when the peoples who do not have the law naturally act according to a law, such men not having the law are themselves a law, which they show written in their hearts' 2 Therefore we judge them to be transgressors who receiving what is of the natural law, err in it. The thief, the adulterer, the murderer, he argues, are arraigned by the natural law. And if in these things a man errs, he is a transgressor according to the law. And then when he says 'sinners of the earth,' he knows that there are others, that is, sinners of the heavens. Let us hear in the preaching of the Gospel about the prodigal son, lost and dead, confessing his sin to his father: 'I have sinned, father, against heaven and before you,' he says. 3 He who has the teaching of heaven and has been made a partaker of spiritual grace, entering into sin, is not a sinner of the earth, but of heaven. For our Lord Jesus Christ summons all who believe in Him and gathers them into the heavens, from which he who strays is named as a sinner of heaven. Therefore when the Prophet judges transgressors to be sinners of the earth, since by erring they have transgressed against the law of nature, because of this he loves the testimonies of God, for transgression is to fall from the law of nature, and since one is separated from the heavenly law it is to be without forgiveness. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 118 1 Ps 118.119 2 Rom 2.14 3 Lk 15.22