eat too, "the Spirit of adoption," and because ye
are sons, therefore hath he given you "the Spirit of his Son," saith this
apostle, Gal. iv. 6. And so it is a kind of consectary(216) of the great
privilege and blessed estate of adoption. They who adopt children, use to
give them some kind of token to express their love to them. But as the
Lord is higher than all, and this privilege to be his son or child is the
greatest dignity imaginable, so this gift of his Spirit suits the
greatness and glory and love of our Father. It is a father's gift indeed,
a gift suitable to our heavenly Father. If a father that is tender of the
education of his child, and would desire nothing so much as that he might
be of a virtuous and gracious disposition, and good ingine,(217) I think
if he were to express his love in one wish, it would be this, that he
might have such a Spirit in him, and this he would account better than all
that he could leave him. But if it were possible to transmit a gracious,
well-disposed and understanding spirit from one to another, and if men
could leave it, as they do their inheritance to their children, certainly
a wise and religious parent would first make over a disposition of that to
his children; as Elisha sought a double measure of Elijah's spirit, so a
father would wish such a measure to his children, and, if it were
possible, give it. But that may not be. All that can be done is to wish
well to them, and leave them a good example for imitation. But in this our
heavenly Father transcends all, that he can impart his own Spirit to his
adopted children, and his Spirit is in a manner the very essential
principle that maketh them children of the Father. Their natures, their
dispositions, are under his power. He can as well reform them, as you can
change your children's garments. He can make of us what he will. Our
hearts are in his hand, as the water, capable of any impression he
pleaseth to put on it, and this is the impression he putteth on his
children, he putteth his Spirit in their hearts, and writeth his law in
their inward parts, a more divine and higher work than all human
persuasion can reach. This Spirit they receive as an earnest of the
inheritance, and withal, to make them fit for the inheritance of the
saints in light.

Now, the working of this Spirit of adoption, I conceive to be threefold,
beside that of intersession expressed in the verse. The first work of the
Spirit of adoption, that wherein a