Bede : "You shall not offer upon it incense of another composition." Later in this book the spices from which this incense was to be composed are specified by name: stacte, and onycha, galbanum of pleasing fragrance, and the purest frankincense. It is obvious that all of these signify the eternal goods which we ought to seek from the Lord before anything else. Consequently upon the altar of gold they were not supposed to offer incense of any composition other than that which the Lord had decreed, because when we pray we ought to seek from the Lord nothing other than that which he himself has commanded and has promised to give us. And we ought to believe nothing concerning him other than that which he himself has taught. — On the Tabernacle 3.12, AT Exodus 30:9 Augustine of Hippo : What he orders concerning the aromas with which the timiama or incense should be made, and the mandate that it be made, according to the art of the perfumer, a perfumed ointment, is not to be interpreted in the sense of making an ointment, that is, something with which he anointed himself, but, as has been said, the timiama or incense to be placed on that altar of incense, where it was not lawful to offer sacrifices and was inside the saint of saints. — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 136 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)