[f. prec.: see -ATION.] Previous ordination or appointment, predestination; an instance of this.
1628. Bp. Hall, trans. Rotomagensis Anon., Wks. 815. Neither can his Will bee frustrated, nor his fore-thought deceiued, nor His fore-ordinations altered.
a. 1680. Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), I. 346. Before the foundation of the world he loved Christ as a Mediator: a fore-ordination of him was before the foundation of the world (John xvii. 24).
1855. Miss Cobbe, Ess. Intuit. Mor., 108. If Fore-ordination be reduced to Ordination, the difficulty of the Predestinarian is reduced to that of the Theological Necessitarian; namely, that of reconciling the Freedom of man with the Omnipotence of God.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 426–7. This he shows was in accordance with ancient prophecy, and, therefore, with Divine fore-ordination.
