Wis 1:12

“For our salvation and destruction are indeed in our own power and free will, as it is written: He made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel. (Eccles. 15:14) And: Before men are life and death, and whichever he chooses shall be given to him. (Eccles. 15:18) Therefore the Wise Man also warns: Do not be zealous for death in the error of your life, nor acquire destruction by the works of your hands. For God did not make death, nor does He rejoice in the destruction of the living. (Wis. 1:12-13) But showing that our downfall is chosen by us of our own accord, he says again: But the wicked have called it to themselves by their hands and words. (Wis. 1:16) A witness to this matter, to speak theologically, is he who was called Lucifer because of his brightness, and became darkness because of his pride.”

“Above, he has listed those things which are harmful to man, that is, grumbling, detraction, and lying, from which he has commanded us to guard ourselves. Now he repeats the same in other words, namely, that we should not do those things which are subject to death, because our destruction does not please God, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth. He who speaks through the prophet: Why will you die, house of Israel? For I do not will the death of the one who dies, says the Lord God (Ezek. 18:31-32). Turn back and live. For God is the author of our salvation, not of our destruction, who saw all that He had made, and it was very good. But according to the Apostle, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (Rom. 6:23).”

“Concerning the justice of works, the treatment is twofold. Do not be zealous for etc. Here he exhorts to the justice of works, and first by reasons taken from the side of creation; second, from the side of retribution, at: For justice etc. From the side of creation, first by a reason taken from the goodness of the Creator: For God; second by a reason taken from the side of the end of creation: He created; third by a reason taken from the side of the condition of the creature: There is not in them. Do not be zealous for etc., as if to say: because lying kills, do not be zealous for, that is, do not love or desire with affection, death, namely of the soul, which one incurs through fault, according to that saying of Augustine: "True death is that which men do not fear: namely the separation of the soul from God, who is the blessed life of souls, just as bodily death is the separation of the body from the soul." Death, I say, causally established in the error of your lives, according to that passage of Proverbs fourteen: "They err who work evil"; for every wicked person is in error, according to the Philosopher. Nor acquire, in effect, perdition, of eternal punishment, which is in our power, according to that passage of Hosea thirteen: "Your destruction, O Israel; only your help is from me." By the works of your hands, causally, that is, by the merit of your works. But it is objected that, according to Augustine, all desire life and beatitude: therefore no one desires death or perdition. It must be said that this is true per se: but per accidens and consequently those are said to desire it who desire the act that is the cause of death and perdition. Whence he posits the consequent for the antecedent, adding: I rightly said that error is the cause of death, and evil works the cause of perdition.”