Eager For Death

Nolite zelare mortem in errorem vitae vestrae, neque acquiratis perditionem in operibus manuum vestrarum. Nolite zelare etc, quasi dicat: quia mendacium occidit, nolite zelare, id est diligere vel appetere affectu, mortem, scilicet animae, quam per culpam incurrit, secundum illud Augustini: Vera mors est quam homines non timent; separatio videlicet animae a Deo, qui est beata vita animarum, sicut mors corporalis est separatio corporis ab anima. Mortem, dico, in errorem vitae vestrae, causaliter constitutam , secundum illud Proverbiorum decimo quarto': Errant qui operantur malum, omnis enim malus errans, secundum Philosophum. Neque acquiratis, in effectu, perditionem, poenae aeternae; quod est in nostra potestate, secundum illud Osee decimo tertio: Perditio tua Israel; tantummodo auxilium tuum ex me. In operibus manuum vestrarum, causaliter, id est merito operum vestrorum. Sed obiicitur, quod, secundum Augustinum, omnes appetunt vitam et beatitudinem : ergo nullus mortem vel perditionem. Dicendum, quod verum est per se; sed per accidens et ex consequenti dicuntur eam appetere qui appetunt actum, qui est causa mortis et perditionis. Unde ponit consequens pro antecedente, subdens: Bene dixi, errorem causam mortis esse, et opera mala causam perditionis. Sanctus Boneventura, Commentarius In Sapientiam Cap I Source: Here

Do not be eager to invite death by the error of your life, nor seize on ruin by the works of your own hands. 1 Do not be eager, as if he said: the lie kills, do not be eager, that is, to be moved by love or desire to death, that is, of the soul, which fault brings in, according to Augustine: 'The true death is what men do not fear, that is, the separation of the soul from God, who is the blessed life of souls, just as the bodily death is the separation of the body from the soul.' 2 'Death,' I say, 'by the error of your life,' establishes the cause, according to the fourteenth chapter of the Proverbs: 'They who wander work evil.' 3 All who wander are wicked, according to the Philosopher. 4 'Nor bring on destruction' that is, to incur eternal punishment, which indeed is in our own power, according to which the thirteenth chapter of Hosea says: 'Your ruin is your own, Israel, your help from me alone.' 4 'By the work of your own hands' is the cause, that is, by the fruit of your works. But it is objected that, according to Augustine, everyone desires life and beatitude, therefore none death and ruin. 6 It must be said that it is true in itself, but by accident and the end, they are said to desire it who desire the act which is the cause of death and ruin. Whence he places the consequent before the antecedent, which may be expressed: Well I have said that error is the cause of death and evils works are the cause of ruin. Saint Bonaventura, Commentary on Wisdom, Chap 1 1 Wisdom 1.12 2 Augus Enarrat Ps 48.2 3 Prov 14.22 4 Aristotle Ethic 3.1 5 Hosea 13.9 6 Augustine, de Moribus Eccles 3