[1] Initially, the book was intended as an internal document and doctrine for the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Priests of the Universe, founded by Pasqually.

It continues to influence occultism, mysticism, and spiritual philosophy as several Martinist organizations and orders around the world consider it one of the fundamental books of their tradition.

According to the Treatise, the doctrine of Martinès de Pasqually holds an eschatological cosmology close to the Judeo-Christian view: God, as the original unity, wished to emanate beings from his own essence.

But Lucifer, who sought to fulfill his creative power, became victim to his own misdeed, being confined to a place along with other major fallen spirits that God has prepared for them as a prison.

The Lord created man for the fulfillment of two important things on a cosmic scale: so that a person could replace the hierarchy of fallen spirits who rebelled against the Lord and were cast out of heaven, and, accordingly, no longer fulfilling their duty in the Divine Purpose; in order to keep the rebels, or, as Pasqually called them the 'spoiled creatures' under constant control, facilitating their reconciliation with God and the speedy correction of their nature.

Therefore, the man doesn't have the right of choice—the freedom of will—through which he can reject bad suggestions and choose the good, or on the contrary, thereby bringing himself into a state of even greater enslavement and dependence on the 'spoiled creatures'.

Previous generations, according to the Treatise, were reconciled by the most vivid Old Testament saints and prophets: Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Elijah.

To attract the faithful to the Lord, the good angels follow the operation of an external cult, which is the theurgy passed along the initiatory chain from Noah to the Order of the Elected Priests (Élus Coëns).

In his book Saint-Martin: The French Mystic and the Story of Modern Martinism (1922), Waite made a brief summary of the rite and doctrine of the Order of Élus Coëns ('Elect Priesthood' as mentioned by Waite): It (the Rite) was concerned with the communication of a secret doctrine by way of direct instruction and with a practice which must be called secret in the ordinary sense which attaches to the idea of occult art or science.

The kind of practice was that which endeavours to establish communication with unseen intelligence by the observances of Ceremonial Magic [...] It will be seen in a word that the Rite of Elect Priesthood had a very different undertaking in hand from anything embraced by the horizon of Craft Masonry or the rank and file of High Grades.

Jacques Cazotte is one of the early French-Martinist figures, author of the occult romance The Devil in Love and Ollivier, poème, who was initiated into the Order of Elect Priests by Martinès de Pasqually himself.

Specialists of the Martinist Order included such occult figures as Papus, Constant Chevillon, Éliphas Lévi, Joséphin Péladan, Jean Bricaud, Maurice Barrès, Stanislas de Guaita, Henri-Charles Détré [fr], among others.