ofold witness," as Pope Leo says (Serm. xxxiv),
"they might seek with more ardent faith Him, whom both the brightness
of the star and the authority of prophecy revealed." Thus they
"proclaim" that Christ is born, and "inquire where; they believe and
ask, as it were, betokening those who walk by faith and desire to
see," as Augustine says in a sermon on the Epiphany (cxcix). But the
Jews, by indicating to them the place of Christ's birth, "are like
the carpenters who built the Ark of Noe, who provided others with the
means of escape, and themselves perished in the flood. Those who
asked, heard and went their way: the teachers spoke and stayed where
they were; like the milestones that point out the way but walk not"
(Augustine, Serm. cclxxiii). It was also by God's will that, when
they no longer saw the star, the Magi, by human instinct, went to
Jerusalem, to seek in the royal city the new-born King, in order that
Christ's birth might be publicly proclaimed first in Jerusalem,
according to Isa. 2:3: "The Law shall come forth from Sion, and the
Word of the Lord from Jerusalem"; and also "in order that by the zeal
of the Magi who came from afar, the indolence of the Jews who lived
near at hand, might be proved worthy of condemnation" (Remig., Hom.
in Matth. ii, 1).

Reply Obj. 4: As Chrysostom says (Hom. ii in Matth. [*From the
supposititious Opus Imperfectum]): "If the Magi had come in search of
an earthly King, they would have been disconcerted at finding that
they had taken the trouble to come such a long way for nothing.
Consequently they would have neither adored nor offered gifts. But
since they sought a heavenly King, though they found in Him no signs
of royal pre-eminence, yet, content with the testimony of the star
alone, they adored: for they saw a man, and they acknowledged a God."
Moreover, they offer gifts in keeping with Christ's greatness: "gold,
as to the great King; they offer up incense as to God, because it is
used in the Divine Sacrifice; and myrrh, which is used in embalming
the bodies of the dead, is offered as to Him who is to die for the
salvation of all" (Gregory, Hom. x in Evang.). And hereby, as Gregory
says (Hom. x in Evang.), we are taught to offer gold, "which
signifies wisdom, to the new-born King, by the luster of our wisdom
in His sight." We offer God incense, "which signifies fervor in
prayer, if our constant prayers mount up to God with an odor of
sweetness"; and we offer myrrh, "which si