The harmony of the Gospels, in the holy history of the humiliation and sufferings…

You produce no Roman capital Law that he hath broken, how then should I judge him to death? To this th•y answered, we have a Law (viz. against Blasphemy) and by that Law we have condemned him, and were he not a malefactor we would not have so done, nor have delivered him to you to put him to death.

You produce no Roman capital Law that he hath broken, how then should I iudge him to death? To this th•y answered, we have a Law (viz. against Blasphemy) and by that Law we have condemned him, and were he not a malefactor we would not have so done, nor have delivered him to you to put him to death.

Now Pilate maketh them a noble offer, it is a point of eminent consideration, Pilate saith, take ye him, and judge him according to your Law, exercise your own power and Jurisdiction, according to your own Laws.

The Jews expressly refuse to accept this offer, and say, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death. Say you so Caiaphas? by whose Law is it not lawful for you to put any man to death? Surely not by Gods Law, it is only by •he Roman Law that it is not lawful for you. So that by this saying of the Jewish Council they do testify in open Cou•t, that the SCEPTRE is now departed from Judah, which is a very great evidence that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and that the Sceptre is departed from them, by their own confession, and that before public Authority. Yea, and when Pilate offered them the exercise of their own Sceptre in a particular case, they expressly refused to accept it, for that very reason, because the Sceptre was departed from them.