, not to
mention _Protestant_, whose fate is yet uncertain, will be
convinced of the truth of this observation. It is thus a system
becomes absurd in the end, merely from its being reasonable and
philosophical in the beginning.
"To oppose the torrent of scholastic religion by such feeble maxims
as these, that _it is impossible for the same thing to be and not
to be_, that _the whole is greater than a part_, that _two and
three make five_, is pretending to stop the ocean with a bulrush.
Will you set up profane reason against sacred mystery? No
punishment is great enough for your impiety. And the same fires
which were kindled for heretics will serve also for the destruction
of philosophers."--(IV. pp. 481-3.)
Holding these opinions respecting the recognised systems of theology and
their professors, Hume, nevertheless, seems to have had a theology of
his own; that is to say, he seems to have thought (though, as will
appear, it is needful for an expositor of his opinions to speak very
guardedly on this point) that the problem of theism is susceptible of
scientific treatment, with something more than a negative result. His
opinions are to be gathered from the eleventh section of the _Inquiry_
(1748); from the _Dialogues concerning Natural Religion_, which were
written at least as early as 1751, though not published till after his
death; and from the _Natural History of Religion_, published in 1757.
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