There surely is something here, which denotes that it is dangerous to resign ourselves to the conclusions of the apostles, when their logical notions are so different from ours.
I farther inquired, what sort of miracle I could conceive, that would alter my opinion on a moral question.

Hosea was divinely ordered to go and unite himself to an impure woman: could I possibly think that God ordered _me_ to do so, if I heard a voice in the air commanding it?
Should I not rather disbelieve my hearing, than disown my moral perceptions?
If not, where am I to stop?
I may practise all sorts of heathenism.

A man who, in obedience to a voice in the air, kills his innocent wife or child, will either be called mad, and shut up for safety, or will be hanged as a desperate fanatic: do I dare to condemn this modern judgment of him?
Would any conceivable miracle justify my slaying my wife?
God forbid! It _must_ be morally right, to believe moral rather than sensible perceptions.

No outward impressions on the eye or ear can be so valid an assurance to me of God's will, as my inward judgment.

How amazing, then, that a Paul or a James could look on Abraham's intention to slay his son, as indicating a praiseworthy faith!--And yet not amazing: It does but show, that apostles in former days, like ourselves, scrutinized antiquity with different eyes from modern events.