PRECEPT.—He who from purpose or confirmation acts against one precept, acts against the rest, [528]. The precepts of regeneration are five, see n. [82]: among which are these, that evils ought to be shunned, because they are of the devil, and from the devil; that goods are to be done, because they are of God, and from God; and that men ought to go to the Lord, in order that He may lead them to do the latter, [525].
PREDICATES.—A subject without predicates is also an entity which has no existence in reason (ens nullius rationis), [66].
PREDICATIONS are made by a man according to his rational light, [485]. Predications of four degrees of adulteries, [485] and following. Difference between predications, charges of blame, and imputations, [485].
PRELATES, why the, of the church have given the pre-eminence to faith, which is of truth, above charity, which is of good, [126].
PREPARATION for heaven or for hell, in the world of spirits, has for its end that the internal and external may agree together and make one, and not disagree and make two, [48*].
PRESENCE.—The origin or cause of presence in the spiritual world, [171]. Man is receptible of the Lord's presence, and of conjunction with Him. To come to Him, causes presence, and to live according to His commandments, causes conjunction, [341]. His presence alone is without reception, but presence and conjunction together are with reception, [341]. The truth of faith constitutes the Lord's presence, [72].
PRESERVATION is perpetual creation, [86]. Whence arises perpetual preservation, [85].
PRETENDER.—Every man who is not interiorly led by the Lord is a pretender, a sycophant, a hypocrite, and thereby an apparent man, and yet not a man, [267].
PRIEST, chief, of a society in heaven, [266].
PRIMARY.—What is first in respect to end, is first in the mind and its intention, because it is regarded as primary, [98]. Things primary exist, subsist, and persist, from things ultimate, [44].