devotion, a sincere ardent worship of the Deity. See Prayer, Adoration, Worship, &c.

Devotion, as defined by Jureius, 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. Treves.

Devotion, among the Romans, was a kind of sacrifice, or ceremony, whereby 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, whence those 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 was 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*. *See Deuterocanonical, in the school-theology, an appellation given to certain books of holy scripture, which were added to the canon after the rest; either by reason they were not wrote till after the compilation of the canon, or by reason of some dispute as to their canonicity. The word is Greek, being compounded of ἑκτός, second, and ἐνομοσια, canonical.

The Jews, it is certain, acknowledged several books in their canon, which were put there later than the rest. They say, that under Esdras, a great assembly of their doctors, which they call by way of eminence the great synagogue, made the collection of the sacred books which we now have in the Hebrew Old Testament. And they agree that they put books therein which had not been so before the Babylonish captivity; such are those of Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai, &c. and those of Esdras and Nehemiah.

And the Romish church has since added others to the canon, that were not, nor could not be, in the canon of the Jews; by reason some of them were not composed till after. Such is the book of Ecclesiasticus; with several of the apocryphal books, as the Maccabees, Wisdom, &c. Others were added still later, by reason their canonicity had not been yet examined; and till such examen, and judgment, they might be set aside at pleasure.—But since that church has pronounced ced as to the canonicity of these books, there is no more room now for her members to doubt of them, than there was for the Jews to doubt of those of the canon of Esdras. And the deuteronomical books are with them as canonical, as the proto-canonical; the only difference between them consisting in this, that the canonicity of the one was not generally known, examined, and settled, so soon as that of the others.

The deuterocanonical books in the modern canon, are the book of Esther, either the whole, or at least the seven last chapters thereof. The epistle to the Hebrews; that of James; and that of Jude; the second of St Peter; the second and third of St John; and the Revelation. The deuterocanonical parts of books, are, in Daniel, the hymn of the three children; the prayer of Azariah; the histories of Susannah, of Bel and the Dragon; the last chapter of St Mark; the bloody sweat, and the appearance of the angel, related in St Luke, chap. xxii; and the history of the adulterous woman in St John, chap. vii.