1 Samuel 16:18

How was he "a man," and how "prudent in speech," and how also "a warrior," while he was still shepherding sheep? He did not, then, speak of himself in saying this, but foretold the things to come as though present, and he testifies concerning David to the things which were going to be — except for the "the Lord is with him" and the "good in appearance," which belonged to him from childhood and remained with him, the one by nature, the other by grace.

It is fitting to raise the eyes of faith to the power of this craftsman, and to consider here and there the Fathers of the new and old testament. Behold, with these same eyes of faith opened, I gaze upon David, Amos, Daniel, Peter, Paul, Matthew, and I wish to consider what kind of craftsman this Holy Spirit is, but in my very consideration I fall short. For he fills a boy who plays the harp, and makes him a psalmist. He fills a herdsman shepherd picking sycamore figs, and makes him a prophet. He fills an abstinent boy, and makes him a judge of elders. He fills a fisherman, and makes him a preacher. He fills a persecutor, and makes him a teacher of the Gentiles. He fills a tax collector, and makes him an evangelist. O what a craftsman this Spirit is! There is no delay in learning whatever he wills. As soon as he touches the mind, he teaches, and merely to have touched is to have taught. For as soon as he illuminates the human soul, he transforms it; he suddenly takes away what it was, and suddenly produces what it was not.

Behold, I have seen the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, skilled in playing, etc. One of the youths is the unity of the humble of Christ, with one and the same heart and soul agreed. To the Jews inquiring about the faith, and knocking step by step, so to speak, on the locked doors of the life-giving cross, immediately clearer answers to the questions of faith, and illuminating the mysteries of the Lord's dispensation: Behold, he says, with the eyes of either flesh or faith I have seen and known the one born from the root of Jesse, in Bethlehem of Judah, a man knowing how to bear infirmities, and submitting to the gibbet of death, able to vanquish the aerial powers, sublime in both strength and prudence; indeed, the very power of God, and the wisdom of God, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, in the innocence of life and the exhibition of heavenly deeds; and, to put it succinctly, he is the one who alone could say: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; and, He who sees me, sees also the Father (John XIV); whose exceptional virtues indeed celebrate the glory of the name. For he is called David, that is, strong with the hand, or desirable. He is strong with the hand, indeed, in the power of his passion, because he laid low his adversaries. Desirable in the splendor of the resurrection, by which he exalted his own. For it is written of him: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle: he is the one whom the angels desire to behold (Psalm XXIII); and who, as the prophet says, will come as the Desired of all nations, and the glory of the house of the Lord will be filled (Haggai II).