Seeks to, writes Steele, "lay before the reader some of the desolations of Zion (i.e. the church--RB)," that the readers "eye may affect his heart,-- that he may be induced to search out the causes of these desolations; and that he may be aroused to the use of such divinely appointed means as the Lord will own and bless for the healing of our breaches, which are great like the sea."

Numerous other subscribers note that they "have been grieved with steps of defection from our Covenanted Reformation," especially among those "several bodies who claim ecclesiastical relation to our reformation progenitors," and set their names to this testimony with the hope of uniting "the witness for Christ in Britain, Ireland, and America, on the platform of our Church in the year 1649."