Prevenient grace is aptly characterized by the Patristic formula: “_Gratia est in nobis, sed sine nobis_,” that is, grace, as a vital act, is in the soul, but as a salutary act it proceeds, not from the free will, but from God. In other words, though the salutary acts of grace derive their vitality from the human will, they are mere _actus hominis_ (θέλησις), not _actus humani_ (βούλησις).(91) “God,” explains St. Augustine, “does many good things in man, which man does not do; but man does none which God does not cause man to do.”(92) And again: “[God] operates without us, in order that we may become willing; but when we once will so as to act, He coöperates with us. We can, however, ourselves do nothing to effect good works of piety without Him either working that we may will, or coöperating when we will.”(93) St. Bernard employs similar language.(94) b) Coöperating grace (_gratia cooperans s. adiuvans s. subsequens_) differs from prevenient grace in this, that it supposes a deliberate act of consent on the part of the will (βούλησις, not θέλησις). St. Gregory the Great tersely explains the distinction as follows: “The divine goodness first effects something in us without our coöperation [_gratia praeveniens_], and then, as the will freely consents, coöperates with us in performing the good which we desire [_gratia cooperans_].”(95) That such free and consequently meritorious acts are attributable to grace is emphasized by the Tridentine Council: “So great is the bounty [of God] towards all men that He will have the things which are His own gifts to be their merits.”(96) Such free salutary acts are not only graces in the general sense, but real actual graces, in as far as they produce other salutary acts, and their existence is as certain as the fact that many men freely follow the call of grace, work out their salvation, and attain to the beatific vision. It is only in this way, in fact, that Heaven is peopled with Saints.