power of man, and is an immediate supernatural grace.

A still more cogent argument can be derived from 1 Cor. III, 6 sq.: "I
have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. Therefore,
neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth; but God that
giveth the increase."(47) In this beautiful allegory the Apostle compares
the genesis of supernatural faith in the soul to that of a plant under the
care of a gardener, who while he plants and waters, yet looks to God for
"the increase." The Apostle and his disciple Apollo are the spiritual
gardeners through whose preaching the Corinthians received the grace of
mediate illumination. But, as St. Paul says, this preaching would have
been useless (_non est aliquid_) had not God given "the increase." In
other words, the grace of immediate illumination was necessary to make the
Apostolic preaching effective. "For," in the words of St. Augustine, "God
Himself contributes to the production of fruit in good trees, when He both
externally waters and tends them by the agency of His servants, and
internally by Himself also gives the increase."(48)

{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}) The argument from Tradition is based chiefly on St. Augustine, "the
Doctor of Grace," whose authority in this branch of dogmatic theology is
unique.(49) His writings abound in many such synonymous terms for the
grace of immediate illumination, as _cogitatio pia, vocatio alta et
secreta, locutio in cogitatione, aperitio veritatis_, etc., etc.

He says among other things: "Instruction and admonition are external aids,
but he who controls the hearts has his cathedra in heaven."(50) Augustine
esteems human preaching as nothing and ascribes all its good effects to
grace. "It is the internal Master who teaches; Christ teaches and His
inspiration."(51) In harmony with his master, St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, the
ablest defender of the Augustinian (_i.e._ Catholic) doctrine of grace,
says: "In vain will our sacred discourses strike the external ear, unless
God by a spiritual gift opens the hearing of the interior man."(52)

2. THE STRENGTHENING GRACE OF THE WILL.--This grace, usually called _gratia
inspirationis_,(53) may also be either mediate or immediate, according as
pious affections and wholesome resolutions are produced in the soul by a
preceding illumination of the intellect or directly by the Holy Ghost.
Owing to the psychological interaction of intellect and will, every grace
of the mind, whether m