I started with the conviction that we cannot attain a full view of the New Testament doctrine on the subject, except in a biblico-historical way, and have abstained from the artificial construction to which systematic theology has recourse, as well as from merely subjective combinations. The work is rather biblical than formally dogmatic or polemical, and intended to embody positive truth according to the setting in which the doctrine is placed in the apostolic documents.--From the Preface.