The Progress of Doctrine by Thomas D Bernard and published by Classics.
The title given to these Lectures may perhaps suggest different expectations as to their scope. It may appear to some to announce an intention of drawing from the New Testament materials for a historical enquiry into the growth of Christian doctrine, as it took place in the minds and under the hands of the Apostles. To others it may indicate a purpose of showing that the New Testament itself exhibits a scheme of progressive doctrine, fashioned for permanent and universal use.
The Lectures will be found to address themselves not to the first, but to the second of these attempts; not examining the New Testament collection, in order to ascertain the chronological sequence of fact, but contemplating it, as it is, for the purpose of observing the actual sequence of thought. In so doing, we are concerned, not only with the component parts of the New Testament, but with the order in which they are placed. On this subject some prefatory words are needed, lest it should seem that the order here followed has been adopted, merely because it comes naturally to us, as that with which we are familiar in our own Bibles.
