13.  After a short interval, wonder succeeded wonder.  I will commend the account of it to the ears of the faithful, for to profane minds nothing that is good is trustworthy.  He was approaching that regeneration by water and the Spirit, by which we confess to God the formation and completion of the Christlike man, and the transformation and reformation from the earthy to the Spirit.  He was approaching the laver with warm desire and bright hope, after all the purgation possible, and a far greater purification of soul and body than that of the men who were to receive the tables from Moses.  Their purification extended only to their dress, and a slight restriction of the belly, and a temporary continence. Exod. xix. 10, 15.  The whole of his past life had been a preparation for the enlightenment, and a preliminary purification making sure the gift, in order that perfection might be entrusted to purity, and that the blessing might incur no risk in a soul which was confident in its possession of the grace.  And as he was ascending out of the water, there flashed around him a light and a glory worthy of the disposition with which he approached the gift of faith; The gift of faith.  One of the questions in some ancient rites of administering Holy Baptism was, “What seekest thou of the Church?” to which the answer was “Faith.” this was manifest even to some others, who for the time concealed the wonder, from fear of speaking of a sight which each one thought had been only his own, but shortly afterwards communicated it to one another.  To the baptiser The baptiser.  The Bishop of Nazianzus—not Leontius of Cæsarea, who had much to do with Gregory’s instruction and had, possibly, admitted him to the order of Catechumens. and initiator, however, it was so clear and visible, that he could not even hold back the mystery, but publicly cried out that he was anointing with the Spirit his own successor.