[1] If you consider and listen with zeal to these truths you will know what things God bestows on those that love him rightly, who are become
a Paradise of delight, raising up in themselves a fertile tree with all manner of fruits, and are adorned with divers fruits.
[2] For in this garden has been planted
the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, but the tree of knowledge does not kill, but disobedience kills.
[3] For that which was written is quite plain, that God in the beginning planted
a tree of knowledge and a tree of life in the midst of Paradise, and showed that life is through knowledge. But those who did not use it in purity were in the beginning deprived of it by the deceit of the serpent;
[4] for neither is there life without knowledge, nor sound knowledge without true life; wherefore both are planted together.
[5] And when the apostle saw the force of this, he blamed the knowledge which is exercised apart from the truth of the injunction which leads to life and said;
Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.
[6] For he who thinks that he knows anything without knowledge which is true and testified to by life, does not know, but is deceived by the serpent, not loving life. But he who has full knowledge with fear and seeks after life plants in hope, looking for fruit.
[7] Let your heart be knowledge, and your life the true and comprehended word.
[8] And if you bear the tree of this and pluck its fruit you will ever enjoy that which is desired by God, which the serpent does not touch, and deceit does not infect, and Eve is not corrupted but a virgin is trusted,
[9] and salvation is set forth, and apostles are given understanding, and the Passover of the Lord advances, and the seasons are brought together, and are harmonised with the world, and the Word teaches the saints and rejoices, and through it the Father is glorified; to whom be glory for ever, Amen.
The Epistle to Diogentus. . . 1913.
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