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Wisdom from Jeremy Taylor for Hallowtide

Words from Taylor which could serve as a commentary on the collect for All Saints' Day, "who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship":

But when good men pray with one heart and in a holy assembly, that is, holy in their desires, lawful in their authority, though the persons be of different complexions, then the prayer flies up to God like the hymns of a choir of angels; for God, - that made body and soul to be one man, and God and man to be one Christ; and three persons are one God, and His praises are sung to Him by choirs, and the persons are joined in orders, and the orders into hierarchies, and all that God might be served by unions and communities, - loves that His church should imitate the concords of heaven, and the unions of God, and that every good man should promote the interests of his prayers by joining in the communion of saints, in the unions of obedience and charity with the powers that God and the laws have ordained.

From Taylor's sermon 'The Return of Prayers', Part II, in The Whole Works of Jeremy Taylor, Volume IV.

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