5. Not to receive any without testimony from some of the brethren of
18, smooth as butter and oil. Thirdly, Answering men's lusts in their doctrine, 2 Tim. 4:3,—bringing doctrines suitable to some beloved lusts of men, especially a broad and easy way of salvation. Fourthly,
Pretences of glorious discoveries and revelations, Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:2.
4. Utterly reject and separate from such as have had means of conviction and admonition, Tit. 3:10.
5. Not to receive any without testimony from some of the brethren of known integrity in the churches. Such is the misery of our days, that men will run to hear those that they know not from whence they come, nor what they are. The laudable practice of the first churches, to give testimonials to them that were to pass from one place to another, 1 Cor. 16:3, and not to receive any without them, Acts 9:26, is quite laid aside.
6. To walk orderly, not attending to the doctrine of any not known to and approved by the churches.
7. To remove far away all delight in novelties, disputes, janglings, contentions about words not tending to godliness; which usually are beginnings of fearful apostasies, Tit. 3:9; 2 Tim. 4:3; 1 Tim. 2:3–5.
RULE XI. Cheerfully to undergo the lot and portion of the whole church, in prosperity and affliction, and not to draw back upon any occasion whatever.
Matt 13:20, 21, "He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended."