15
several reasons: religion would become uncomfortable and unappealing, people would
faint under their burden of sin, and they would develop hard thoughts of God. God will
lead those under bondage into liberty to show that it is not in vain to serve Him; He wants
to wean His own from this world, and He wants to commune often with them.
44
Third, some sincere children of God have, at best, a weak sense of their own sonship.
Objectively, all God`s children are equally sons with God, as we have seen. But, as
Manton says, All God`s children have the spirit of adoption in the effects, though not in
the sense and feeling of it. They have the spirit of comfort, though not the comfort of
it.... There is a child-like inclination and impression left upon them, though they know it
not, [and] own it not. Christ had the Spirit without measure, but Christians, though
having the whole Spirit, enjoy Him and His work in different degrees. Christians are not
all of the same size and growth. Moreover, Manton concludes, Some do more improve
their privileges than others do; now they cannot rationally expect the best and richest
fruits of this gift, and to be enabled and enlarged by the Spirit, who do not give such
ready entertainment and obedience to his motions, as the more serious and fruitful
Christian doth.
45
Manton then explains the difference between these people who have a weak sense
of sonship and those who are still under the Spirit of bondage. The weak ones have a
child-like inclination to God, though they lack child-like familiarity and boldness. They
have a child-like reverence for God as Father (1 Pet. 1:17) though they lack a child-like
confidence in Him as their Father. They have a child-like dependence on God`s general
offers of grace, but are not persuaded of the sincerity of their particular claim. They have
a child-like love to God, though they lack assurance of His paternal love to them. They
possess the child-like adherence of faith without the mature full assurance of faith. Unlike
those under the Spirit of bondage who seek God out of a mercenary spirit, these seek Him
from a child-like spirit.
46
Manton gives four counsels to assist the weak in faith in being able to call God
their Father: First, disclaim when you cannot apply. If you cannot say Father, plead
on your fatherless condition, using such texts as Hosea 14:3, In thee the fatherless find
mercy. Second, own God in the humbling way. Come to the Father like the prodigal