A state or disposition of the mind, wherein we put a value upon, or become pleased with, some person or thing. Moralists are divided on the principle of approbation, or the motive which determines us to approve or disapprove. The Epicureans will have it to be only self-interest: according to them, that which determines any agent to approve his own action, is its apparent tendency to his private happiness; and even the approbation of another's action flows from no other cause but an opinion of its tendency to the happiness of the approver, either immediately or remotely. Others resolve approbation into a moral sense, or a principle of benevolence, by which we are determined to approve every kind affection either in ourselves or others, and all publicly useful actions which we imagine to flow from such affections, without any view therein to our own private happiness. But may we not, add, that a true Christian's approbation arises from his perception of the will of God?
See OBLIGATION.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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