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Bible Dictionaries
Approbation
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
or 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.
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Buck, Charles. Entry for 'Approbation'. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/cbd/a/approbation.html. 1802.
