First question. Again the same religious appeared on his rung as before and said: "O Judge, I ask you: Since you are most mighty, most beautiful, and most virtuous, why did you cloak your divinity - which shines incomparably brighter than the sun - in such sackcloth - namely, your humanity?"

Second question. "Item. How does your Godhead enclose all in itself and yet not be enclosed by anything? How does it contain all and yet not be contained by anything?"

Third question. "Item. Why did you will to lie so long a time in the Virgin's womb? Why did you not come forth as soon as you had been conceived?"

Fourth question. "Item. Since you can do all things and are everywhere present, why did you not immediately appear in the stature that you had when you reached your thirtieth year?"

Fifth question. "Item. Since you were not born of Abraham's seed through a father, why did you will to be circumcised?"

Sixth question. "Item. Since you were conceived and born without sin, why did you will to be baptized?"

Response to the first question. The Judge answered him: "Friend, I answer you with an example. There is a certain kind of grape whose wine is so strong that it comes forth from the grape without the touch of man. When the attentive owner sees the time of ripeness, he places a vessel down below. The wine is not waiting for the vessel, but the vessel for the wine. But if several vessels are placed below, the wine pours into the vessel that is nearest.

This grape is my Godhead, which is so full of the wine of divine charity that all the choirs of angels are replenished with it, and of it, all existing things partake. But through disobedience, man made himself unworthy of that grape. Therefore, when at the time foreseen from eternity God my Father willed to display his charity, he sent his wine - i.e., me, his Son - into the vessel that stood nearest, expecting the advent of the wine, namely, into the womb of the Virgin, who had a love for me more fervent than that of any other creature. This Virgin so loved and desired me that there was no hour in which she did not seek me out of longing to become my handmaid. Therefore she received the choice wine; and this wine had three traits: first, strength, because I came forth without the touch of man; second, a most beautiful color because I, fair in beauty, came down from high heaven to fight; third, a most excellent sweetness, inebriating with its supreme blessing.

And so that wine - which is I myself - entered a virginal womb so that I, the invisible God, might be made visible and so that lost man might be liberated. I could quite well, indeed, have taken on another form; but it would not have been justice in God if form were not given for form and nature for nature, and if the manner of satisfaction did not accord with the manner of fault.

Moreover, which of the wise could have believed or guessed that I, God almighty, would will so to humble myself that I would take on the sackcloth of humanity, except for the fact of my incomprehensible love, because of which I willed to live visibly with man? Because I saw that the Virgin burned with so fervent a love, my divine severity was conquered and my love was shown in order that man might be reconciled to me. Why do you marvel? I, God - who am love itself and who hate none of the things that I have made - arranged to give man not only my best gifts but also myself, as his price and his prize, so that all the proud and all the devils might be cast into confusion."

Response to the second question. "Item. As to how my Godhead encloses all things in itself, I answer: I, God, am spirit. I speak and it is done. I instruct and all things obey me. Truly, I am he who gives existence and life to all. Before I made the sky and the mountains and the earth, in myself I AM. I am above all and beyond all. I am within all; and all are in me; and, without me, there is nothing. And because my spirit breathes where it will; because it can do all things when it will; because it knows all things and is more swift and agile than all the spirits; because it has all strength and sees all things - present, past, and future - therefore my spirit, i.e., my Godhead, is deservedly incomprehensible even while it comprehends all."

Response to the third question. "Item. As to why I lay so long a time in the Virgin's womb, I answer: I am the establisher of all nature; and for each nature I have arranged a due manner, time, and order of birth. Thus, if I, the establisher, had gone forth from the womb as soon as I was conceived, I would have acted against my arrangement of nature; and my assumption of humanity would have been fantastical and untrue. I willed to be as long a time in the womb as other children so that even I myself might comply with the arrangement of nature that I had made and ordained so well."

Response to the fourth question. "Item. As to why, at the time of my nativity, I was not immediately as large as I was in my thirtieth year, I answer: If I had done this, all would have wondered and feared, following me out of fear - and because they saw miracles - rather than out of love. How then would the prophets' words have been fulfilled? They had foretold that as a child I would be placed in a manger among animals and be adored by kings and be offered in the temple and be persecuted by enemies. Therefore, to show that my humanity was real and that the prophets' words were fulfilled in me, my limbs grew through the intervals of time - but in fullness of wisdom I was as great at the beginning of my birth as at the end."

Response to the fifth question. "Item. To your questioning why I was circumcised, I answer: Although I was not of Abraham's lineage through a father, nevertheless I was of that lineage through my Mother, although without sin. Because I instituted the law in my divinity, I willed also to suffer the law in my humanity that my enemies might not slander me by saying that I had given precepts that I myself would not fulfill."

Response to the sixth question. "Item. As to why I willed to be baptized, I answer: Everyone who wills to establish or begin a new way must himself - as the establisher and beginner of that way - walk on it ahead of others. Now, to the ancient People, there was given a carnal way, namely, circumcision, as a sign of obedience and future purgation. In faithful persons who kept the law, it wrought some effect of the future grace and promise before there came that promised truth - namely, I, the Son of God.

Because the law was only, as it were, a shadow, it had been determined in eternity that with the coming of truth the ancient way would retire, lacking its effect. Therefore, that the truth might appear, the shadow yield, and an easier way to heaven be shown, I, God and man, born without sin, willed to be baptized out of humility and as an example to others and so that I might open heaven to those who believe. As a sign of this, when I had been baptized, the heavens were opened; the Father's voice was heard; the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove; and I, God's Son, was shown in a true human being in order that all the faithful might know and believe that the Father opens heaven for the faithful who have been baptized.

The Holy Spirit is with the baptizer, and the virtuous power of my humanity is in the element, although in the Father and in Me and in the Holy Spirit there is only one operation and one will. And so, with the coming of truth - i.e., when I, who am truth, came into the world - then, at once, the shadow vanished; the shell of the law was broken and the kernel appeared; circumcision gave way and in me baptism was confirmed - by means of which, heaven is opened for the young and the old; and the children of wrath become children of grace and of life everlasting."