God cooperates physically and immediately with acting creatures.

The cooperation (concursus) of God with the act of the creature is: a) Moral, which God gives to the rational creature by means of his intellect and will, or by a command or persuasion or some other moral means by which he can determine the act of the second cause (creature), b) Physical, inasmuch as God by his physical power influences the act of the creature. Physical is: a) Mediate, inasmuch as God gives to the creature, and conserves, the power of acting or the active powers by which it can essentially truly act. To the extent that God without dependence on a higher power gives that power, that is, gives it from himself as its fountain and totally so, this cooperation can be said to be immediate with the immediacy of power. b) Immediate, inasmuch as God together with the created cause elicits the act and so produces the same effect. Inasmuch as between God acting and the action itself and consequently also the effect, no other middle agent is involved, that type of cooperation can be said to be also immediate with the immediacy of the substance. Immediate is: a) General (universal, ordinary, natural), if cooperation is given to a natural act. b) Special (particular, extraordinary, preternatural or supernatural), if it is given for a preternatural or a supernatural act. Acting creatures are all created causes, eliciting any kind of action, whether good or evil, large or small.

The subject here is not about moral cooperation, since it is easily admitted, nor about mediated physical, since that also is easy to establish, but about immediate physical cooperation, which is required for every action, whatever it may be, whether general or special regarding the nature of the action. Here however we are concerned only with the fact that God’s cooperation is required for every action, but we are interested primarily in natural actions, since special cooperation will be handled in another treatise. Moreover, if cooperation is proved to be required for every action, then it is also required for all supernatural acts. However the necessity of special cooperation does not necessarily imply the necessity for natural acts.