Page:Doctrine of the cross of Christ, stated and improved.pdf/3

 But the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ richly adapted to answer these important. It directs us to the death of the Saviour, in our room and stead, as  sovereign remedy for all the evils which  has introduced. The cross of Christ is the source of relief which it proposes to  consideration. It is this which distinguishes the religion of Jesus from every religion professed in the world.

It may be needful just to observe, before proceed, that the Redeemer of men suffered death on a sort of gibbet called a cross. With the Greeks, the Romans, and some nations, this was a punishment inflicted on the vilest slaves, who had been guilty  notorious offences. It was shameful,, and lingering. The criminal was scourged with cords. These cords had sharp pointed bones fixed to their. The sufferer must then bear his cross the place of execution. There, his clothes stripped off, his body was stretched  the timber, his hands nailed to the  beam, and his feet to the lower part. The cross was then raised, and fixed in the ; the nails, driven through the most parts of the body, and sustaining its weight, rendered the pain exquisite beyond expression. Yet it was sometimes two or three days before the person expired. The