Centuries of Meditations

32

Whoever suffereth innocently and justly in another’s stead, must become a surety by his voluntary act. And this an Angel or a Cherubim might have done. He might also perhaps have suffered an infinite punishment in the removal of that Love of God which he infinitely prized: and perhaps also he might have paid an obedience which he owed not. For the Angels are bound to love God with all their might, and men as themselves, while they are innocent: and to live by loving them in their blessedness and glory; yet they are not bound by virtue of this law to die for men being wicked and deformed; and therefore in undertaking this might have undertaken more than was their duty: and perhaps loving God infinitely, (had they seen His love to man) they would. Yea, perhaps also they might have suffered in our nature; and been able to have sustained infinite wrath; which are all the conditions usually reckoned up and numbered by Divines, as requisite in a Mediator and Redeemer of others. For they might have been hypostatically united to our nature, and though they were creatures, yet Almighty Power can sustain a creature under as great a punishment as Almighty Power can inflict. Almighty Power upholding it being like the nether millstone, and Almighty Power punishing like the upper millstone, between which two it is infinitely tormented. We must therefore search higher into the causes of our Saviour’s prelation above them.