A criminal they could not doom

Verse 1
A criminal they could not doom,
They might an innocent release,
Permitted by imperious Rome
To hear and try the witnesses:
But lo, the rage of Jewish zeal
Conspires with Roman policy,
Thy sure prediction to fulfil
And nail thee, Saviour, to the tree.

Verse 2
And shall thy followers complain,
Who in thy steps profess to go,
Condemn’d by rash, oppressive man,
Entreated like Thyself below?
Or rather patiently receive
The treatment which confirms us thine,
And when pronounc’d unfit to live,
Our spirits on thy cross resign!

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The Jews said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die.’—[John 18,] v. 31, 32." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/573, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 74.
Publishing: Public Domain