CHAP. XII — THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE TO TRUE SPIRITUAL
LIFE
WHEN you have read and carefully listened to these
things, you shall know what God bestows on such as rightly love Him, being
made [as ye are] a paradise of delight, presenting in yourselves a tree
bearing all kinds of produce and flourishing well, being adorned with various
fruits. For in this place the tree of knowledge and the tree of life
have been planted; but it is not the tree of knowledge that destroys--it
is disobedience that proves destructive. Nor truly are those words without
significance which are written, how God from the beginning planted the
tree of life in the midst of paradise, revealing through knowledge the
way to life, and when those who were first formed did not use this [knowledge]
properly, they were, through the fraud of the Serpent, stripped naked.
For neither can life exist without knowledge, nor is knowledge secure without
life. Wherefore both were planted close together. The Apostle, perceiving
the force [of this conjunction], and blaming that knowledge which, without
true doctrine, is admitted to influence life, declares, "Knowledge puffeth
up, but love edifieth." For he who thinks he knows anything without true
knowledge, and such as is witnessed to by life, knows nothing, but is deceived
by the Serpent, as not loving life. But he who combines knowledge with
fear, and seeks after life, plants in hope, looking for fruit. Let your
heart be your wisdom; and let your life be true knowledge inwardly received.
Bearing this tree and displaying its fruit, thou shalt always gather
in those things which are desired by God, which the Serpent cannot reach,
and to which deception does not approach; nor is Eve then corrupted,
but is trusted as a virgin; and salvation is manifested, and the Apostles
are filled with understanding, and the Passover of the Lord advances,
and the choirs are gathered together, and are arranged in proper order,
and the Word rejoices in teaching the saints,--by whom the Father is glorified:
to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
