† pre-existencyn.

1642 H. More Ψυχωδια Platonica sig. I6 Three apprehensions..Concerning the souls preexistencie Before into this outward world she glide.

a1652 J. Smith Select Disc. (1660) iv. iii. 84 Meer Matter could never thus stretch forth its feeble force, & spread it self over all its own former præexistencies.

1705 E. Scarburgh Eng. Euclide 51 (note) This Praeexistency of the knowledge of something in the very things unknown, and sought for, is the foundation of all our Ratiocinations.

1738 P. King Hist. Apostle's Creed (ed. 5) ii. 79 They affirmed its coexistency with, and even pre-existency to that petty inferiour God, who, they constituted the Creator of the World.

1875 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) July 460 On the lowest hypothesis of pre-existency, we have the real difficulty for the reason, although it may not be of so startling a kind as is presented by the doctrine of the absolute Godhead.