The above citations are a few of many others of a like character scattered through the works of the fathers, inserted long after their death, and evidently intended to combat the idea of Cerinthus and others, that Christ did not suffer on the cross, and so it could not be claimed that by his death he made an atonement for the sins of man. Both of these fathers lived near the time of Paul, and believed the doctrines he preached: "Ye are the passage of those that are killed for God; who have been _instructed in the mysteries of the gospel with Paul_, who was sanctified and bore testimony even unto death, and is deservedly most happy; at whose feet I would that I might be found when I shall have attained unto God, who through all his epistles makes mention of you in Christ." (_Ignatius to the Ephesians_, sec. 12.) "For neither can I, nor any other such as I am, come up to the wisdom of the blessed and renowned Paul, who being amongst you, in the presence of those who then lived, taught with exactness and soundness the word of truth; who in his absence also wrote an epistle to you, unto which, if you diligently look, you may be able to be edified in the faith delivered unto you, which is the mother of us all." (_Polycarp to the Philippians_, sec. 3.) Paul taught that Christ was born of woman, under the law; and Ignatius, that he was "truly of the race of David, according to the flesh." (Letter to the Eph., sec. 1.) The letters of Polycarp and Ignatius seemed a kind of a free commons where forgeries might be committed by all; and they have been so often used for this purpose, in order to secure the authority of their names to the doctrines of the day, that there is very little of the originals left. All parties were engaged in the practice; and each charged his adversary with doing the very thing that he was doing himself. As we read whole pages in Irenaeus, charging his adversaries with forgeries and false interpolations, we smile at the impudence and audacity of the man, who has done more to pollute the pages of history than any other, and whose foot-prints we can follow through the whole century, like the slime of a serpent.