theology, means the act of abandoning, or state of being abandoned, to eternal destruction, and is applied to that decree or resolve which God has taken from all eternity to punish sinners who shall die in impenitence; in which sense it is directly opposed to election. When a sinner is so hardened as to feel no remorse or misgiving of conscience, it is considered as a sign of reprobation; which by the ancients has been distinguished into positive and negative. The first is that whereby God is supposed to create men with a positive and absolute resolution to damn them eternally. This opinion is countenanced by St. Augustine and other Christian fathers, and is a peculiar tenet of Calvin and most of his followers. The church of England, in The thirty-nine Articles, teaches something like it; and the church of Scotland, in the Confession of Faith, maintains it in the strongest terms. But the notion is generally exploded, and is believed by no rational divine in either church, being totally injurious to the justice of the Deity. Negative or conditional reprobation is that whereby God, though he has a sincere desire to save men, and furnishes them with the necessary means, so that all if they will may be saved, yet sees that there are many who will not be saved by the means, however powerful, that are afforded them; tho' by other means which the Deity sees, but will not afford them, they might be saved. Reprobation respects angels as well as men, and respects the latter either fallen or unfallen. See Predestination.