2 Samuel 7:2

Nathan the prophet— Nathan was both polite and prudent, and knew how to temper the severity of wisdom with the sweetness of good manners. Grotius compares him to Manlius Lepidus, who is celebrated by Tacitus, "for diverting the emperor Tiberius from such cruel purposes, as the vile flattery of others was apt to instigate him to." He compares him likewise to Piso, the chief priest of the Romans, who is described by the same historian as one who was never guilty of the least degree of servile adulation, but upon all occasions truly master of his tempter. It must be confessed, however, that Nathan went beyond these two celebrated personages; he knew how to reprove princes with authority, and yet without offence, without losing the least degree of interest or influence, or affection from his sovereign: on the contrary, he increased in both so much, that, as tradition tells us, David named one son after him, and committed another, even his favourite and successor, to his tuition and instruction.