3.  A  Summary  View  of  the  Ancient  Age. — If  one  take  a
conjunct  view  of  this  early  period,  and  then  frame  a  concise
statement  of  the  prospects  of  Comparative  Religion  at  the
end  of  the  eighth  century,  the  following  synopsis  may
perhaps  suffice.  The  most  that  can  be  said  is  that,  among
the  Greek  Fathers  (represented  very  well  by  Justin
Martyr),  there  was  a  general  disposition  to  describe  man
as  being  in  possession  of  an  innate  idea  of  God  ;  among  the
Latin  Fathers  (best  represented,  perhaps,  by  Tertullian),
stress  was  specially  laid  upon  the  fact  of  the  universal  assent
given  to  the  doctrine  of  God,  as  soon  as  instruction  to  that
effect  was  presented  to  man  for  his  acceptance ;  ^  while,
among  both  Greeks  and  Latins,  chief  reliance  for  securing
man's  acknowledgment  of  the  supremacy  of  a  Divine
authority  was  placed  upon  the  argument  from  design  in
Nature.     This  latter  arsenal,  indeed,  was  one  from  whicli

^  The  Greek  Fathers  did  not  wliolly  omit  to  use  this  liiii-:  of  reasoning  ;
Imt,  with  them,  it  was  an  occasional  (and  nut  a  cliaracteristic)  method.
128  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION  [chap,  v

at  least  some  weapons  were  certain  to  be  drawn  in  every
theological  encounter.
