DEVOTION (JDevotio), a sincere and ardent worship of the Deity.

Devotion, as defined by Jurieu, is a softening and yielding of the heart, with an internal consolation, which the souls of believers feel in the practice or exercise of piety. By devotion is also understood certain religious practices which a person makes it a rule to discharge regularly; and with reason, if the exactitude be founded on solid piety; otherwise it is vanity or superstition. That devotion is vain and trifling which would accommodate itself both to God and to the world.

The character of devotion has frequently suffered from the forbidding air which has been thrown over it, by the narrowness of bigotry on the one hand, or the gloom of superstition on the other. When free, cheerful, and generous minds have not had occasion to see it accompanied with those feelings of delight and benevolence which naturally attend it, they are apt to be prejudiced against piety at large, by mistaking this ungracious appearance for its genuine form. Nor has the rant of vulgar enthusiasts contributed little to beget and strengthen the same aversion in persons of a cool and speculative temper, who have happened to meet among religionists of a certain strain with such images and phrases as ill suit the rational, pure, and spiritual nature of true devotion. It may likewise be remarked, on the other hand, that people of taste and sensibility have not unfrequently been disgusted with the insipid style too often employed on such subjects, by those who possess neither, or who purposely avoid every thing of the kind, from an aim at simplicity misunderstood, or perhaps from a fear of being thought too zealous in an age of fashionable indifference and false refinement.

Wherever the vital and unadulterated spirit of Christian devotion prevails, its immediate object will be to please him whom we were made to please, by adoring his perfections; by admiring his works and ways; by entertaining with reverence and complacence the various intimations of his pleasure, especially those contained in holy writ; by acknowledging, our absolute dependence and infinite obligations; by confessing and lamenting the disorders of our nature and the transgressions of our lives; by imploring his grace and mercy through Jesus Christ; by interceding for our brethren of mankind; by praying for the propagation and embellishment of truth, righteousness, and peace on earth; in fine, by longing for a more entire conformity to the will of God, and breathing after the everlasting enjoyment of his favour. The effects of such a spirit habitually cherished, and feelingly expressed before him, with conceptions more or less enlarged and elevated, in language more or less emphatical and accurate sententious or diffuse, must surely be important and happy. Amongst these effects may be reckoned, a profound humility in the sight of God, a high veneration for his presence and attributes, an ardent zeal for his worship and honour, an affectionate faith in the Saviour of the world, a constant imitation of his divine example, a diffusive charity for men of all denominations, a generous and unwearied self-denial for the sake of virtue and society, a total resignation to Providence, an increasing esteem for the gospel, with clearer and firmer hopes of that immortal life which it alone has brought clearly to light.

Devotion, among the Romans, was a kind of sacrifice or ceremony, by which they consecrated themselves to the service of some person. The ancients had a notion that the life of one might be ransomed by the death of another; and hence such devotions became frequent for the lives of the emperors. Devotion to any particular person was unknown among the Romans till the time of Augustus. The very day after the title of Augustus had been conferred upon Octavius. Pacuvius, a tribune of the people, publicly declared that he would devote himself to Augustus, and obey him at the expense of his life, as was the practice among barbarous nations, if he were commanded. His example was immediately followed by all the rest, till at length it became an established custom never to go to salute the emperor without declaring that they were devoted to him. Before this the practice of the Romans was that of devoting themselves to their country.
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