Definition of "prevenient"

Prevenient Grace deſcending had remov'd / The ſtonie from thir hearts, and made new fleſh / Regenerat grow inſtead, that ſighs now breath'd / Unutterable, which the Spirit of prayer / Inſpir'd, and wing'd for Heav'n with ſpeedier flight / Then loudeſt Oratorie: […]

1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 3–8

They drank and bet and muttered in an air of electric transiency, old men in gaitered sleeves galvanized from some stained sepia, posting time at cards prevenient of their dimly augured doom.

1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 22