Antecedency

[…] for, vnity is before any multiplied number. Which antecedencie of Vnity, in the same place, he [Dionysius] applieth vnto the Deitie.

Most of thy reflections, particularly that, which respects the difference as to the joys to be given by the Virtuous and the Libertine of the sex, are fitter to come in as after-reflections, than as antecedencies.

The dependence of the Understanding on the representations of the Senses, and its consequent posteriority thereto, as contrasted with the independence and antecedency of Reason, are strikingly exemplified in the Ptolemaic System […] compared with the Newtonian […]

Much of the antecedency of the movement had grown out of what one historian called “an errand of mercy” […]