From the first chapter: "The epistle of the Romans is the nearest approach of anything in the inspired volume to a systematic view of Christianity. The design of the following work is to present, with as much conciseness as is compatible with perspicuity, such a view of the statements and illustrations, of the doctrine and law of Christ . . . as may at once induce the conviction that . . . it deserves to be regarded as a piece of deep and close thinking . . ."