And so throughout there is censure and counter censure between the orthodox and the heretics, and it is difficult at times to determine which are the orthodox and which the heretics, so frequently do they change places. Nor was there any improvement in the ages that succeeded these that have been briefly considered. The editor of Dr. Jortin's learned work on Ecclesiastical History, William Trollope, on a passage of Jortin's on the early fathers, says of the fathers of the fourth century: "After the council of Nice,[A] a class of writers sprung up, greatly inferior to their predecessors, in whatever light their pretensions are viewed. Sadly deficient in learning, prejudiced in opinion, and inelegant in style, they cannot be admitted for a moment into competition with those who were contemporary with the Apostles and their immediate successors."[B] [Footnote A: Held in 325 A. D.] [Footnote B: Jortin, vol. i, p. 166, note.] The whole tenor of his remarks is to the effect that while the fathers of the second and third centuries are not to be relied upon in their interpretations of Scripture, were frequently deceived in opinions, and not always to be depended upon in matters of tradition, yet they were greatly to be preferred in all respects to the fathers of succeeding centuries. _II. The Development of False Doctrines After the Death of the Apostles:_ Here, too, I shall rely very largely upon the conclusions of the learned Dr. Lardner, referring to the development of the heresies, the seeds of which were sown in the days of the Apostles, says: "Eusebius relates that Ignatius, on his way from Antioch to Rome, exhorted the churches to beware of heresies which were then springing up, and which would increase; and that he afterwards wrote his epistles in order to guard them against these corruptions, and to confirm them in the faith. This opinion that the seeds of these heresies were sown in the time of the Apostles, and sprang up immediately after is an opinion probably in itself, and is embraced by several learned moderns, particularly by Vitringa, and by the late Rev. Mr. Brekel of Liverpool."[A] [Footnote A: Lardner, vol. viii, p. 344.]