Pearson dedicated his work to his parishioners of St. Clement's, Eastcheap, where he had previously preached the essence of the work several years earlier. Regarding the Christian cross, he explained in his commentary on the Apostles' Creed that the Greek term stauros initially meant "a straight standing Stake, Pale, or Palisador," but when additional transverse or prominent parts were added to form a perfect Cross, it still retained its original name. He asserted that "The Form then of the Cross on which our Saviour suffered was not a simple, but a compounded, Figure, according to the Custom of the Romans, by whose Procurator he was condemned to die. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of Wood fixed in the Earth, but also a transverse Beam fastened unto that towards the top thereof."