When a person is given up to the will of any person, or to his own will, he is devoted to that person or to himself. But as the term devout is used in religion, we may say that every man is more or less devout, according to his regard to the will of God expressed in his holy oracles. The Savior was perfectly so, and he is and ever shall be the standard of perfect devotion. He was then perfectly devout. Now, in proportion as men are regenerated, they are like him.
Faith always purifies the heart.
A pure heart is an unmixed heart, that is, a heart singly fixed upon the will of God. The regenerated are therefore devout, or devoted to the will of God, and the unregenerated care nothing about it. Now everyone that is devout, or devoted to the will of God, will continually be inquiring into the will of God. Hence his oracles will always be their meditation. A mind not devoted to the whole will of God, revealed in the New Book, is unregenerate.