After having witnessed "Calvinists and avowed Arminians at the table of the Lord, under the influence of a disposition to esteem their differences of no importance," the author began to question his own loose views regarding terms of admission to the Lord's supper. This eventually led to this book.

Not wanting to further increase a disunion among Christians, the author felt constrained to defend his principle for close communion with these words, "Whoever shall honour them with a pursual, will see that their principal object is to guard the truth of God's word from being surrendered, and the discipline of God's house from being laid aside, for the sake of promoting the shadow of a union among professing Christians, a union which consists in being merely assembled in the same ordinance, without any hearty agreement in the truth, or any subjection to Christ, or any view to the promotion of real piety, individual or social."

Promotes the necessity of agreement to faithful creeds and confessions, as prerequisites to unity and for partaking at the Lord's table.

Deals with: the difference between essentials and non-essentials; which creeds are faithful; Calvin's and Augustine's views; and the arguments from Holy Scripture.