From the subject of customs connected with meals, such as that, for example, of saying grace, he may team that this is a devotional act; that it is not to be said as a mere ceremony, by thanking the Supreme Being in so many words while the thoughts are roving on other subjects, but that it should be said with seriousness and feeling, and that it should never come as an oblation from the tongue, except it come also an oblation from the heart.  And on that which relates to the drinking of toasts, he may see the moral necessity of an immediate extirpation of it.  He may see that this custom has not one useful or laudable end in view; that it is a direct imitation of Pagans in the worst way in which we can follow them—­their enjoyment of sensual pleasures; that it leads directly and almost inevitably to drunkenness, and of course to the degradation of the rational and moral character.

A second advantage, which they who compose the world may derive on this occasion, will be seen from a recapitulation of some of the principles which the work contains.  The advantage in question will chiefly consist in this, that, whatever these principles may be, they may be said to be such as have been adopted by a moral people, and this after serious deliberation, and solely on a religious ground.  It is of great importance from whence principles come recommended to our notice.  If they come from the inconsiderate and worthless, they lose their value.  If from the sober and religious, we receive them under the impression, that they may be promotive of our good.  I shall give therefore a summary of these, as they may be collected from the work.

God has imparted to men a portion of his own Spirit, though he has given it to them indifferent degrees.  Without this Spirit it would be impossible for them to discern spiritual things.  Without this it would be impossible for them to know spiritually, even that the Scriptures were of divine authority, or spiritually to understand them.  This Spirit performs its office of a teacher by internal monitions, and, if encouraged, even by the external objects of creation.  It is also a primary and infallible guide.  It is given to all without exception.  It is given to all sufficiently.  They who resist it, quench it, and this to their own condemnation.  They who encourage it receive it more abundantly, and are in the way of salvation and redemption.  This Spirit therefore becomes a Redeemer also.  Redemption may he considered in two points of view, as it is either by outward or inward means, or as it relates to past sins or to sins to come.  Jesus Christ effected redemption of the first kind, or that from past sins, while he was personally upon earth, by the sacrifice of himself.  But it is this Spirit, or Christ within, as the Quakers call it, which effects the latter, or which preserves from future transgressions.  It is this Spirit which leads, by means of its inward workings, to a new birth, and finally to the highest perfection of which our nature is capable.  In this office of an inward Redeemer, it visits all, so that all may be saved, if they will attend to its saving operations, God being not willing that any should perish, but that all should inherit eternal life.