All 5 Uses

precedent
in
Common Sense, by Thomas Paine
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If the first king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent for the next, which excludes hereditary succession.†
Chpt 2. *
If the first king of any country was by election, that likewise establishes a precedent for the next; for to say, that the RIGHT of all future generations is taken away, by the act of the first electors, in their choice not only of a king, but of a family of kings for ever, hath no parallel in or out of scripture but the doctrine of original sin, which supposes the free will of all men lost in Adam; and from such comparison, and it will admit of no other, hereditary succession can derive no glory.†
Chpt 2.
We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty.†
Chpt 3.
The precedent is somewhat dangerous to THEIR PEACE, for men to be in arms under the name of subjects; we, on the spot, can solve the paradox: but to unite resistance and subjection, requires an idea much too refined for common understanding.†
Chpt 4.
The instance is without a precedent; the case never existed before; and who can tell what may be the event?†
Chpt Appe

Definitions:

(1) (precedent as in: sets a precedent)
an example from a prior time -- typically used to justify similar occurrences at a later time (especially a judicial decision)
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)