Article 3. The Predestination Of The Elect 1. WHAT IS MEANT BY PREDESTINATION.—We have shown that God antecedently wills to save all men,(571) and that He gives to all sufficient grace to work out their eternal salvation. On the other hand, Sacred Scripture assures us that some are lost through their own fault. Cfr. Matth. XXV, 41: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.” It follows that God’s will to save, considered as _voluntas consequens_, remains ineffective with regard to a portion of the human race, and consequently, in this respect, is no longer universal but particular. Being omniscient, God has foreseen this from all eternity and disposed His decrees accordingly. It is in this sense that Catholic theology teaches the existence of a twofold predestination: one to Heaven, for those who die in the state of grace, another to hell, for those who depart this life in mortal sin. Present-day usage reserves the term _predestination_ for the election of the blessed. a) Rightly does the Council of Trent call predestination a “hidden mystery.”(572) For in the last analysis it rests solely with God, who are to be admitted to Heaven and who condemned to hell. But why does God give to some merely sufficient grace, with which they neglect to coöperate, while on others He showers efficacious graces that infallibly lead to eternal salvation? In this unequal distribution of efficacious grace lies the sublime mystery of predestination, as St. Augustine well knew, for he says in his treatise On the Gift of Perseverance: “Therefore, of two infants equally bound by original sin, why the one is taken and the other left; and of two wicked men already mature in years, why one should be so called that he follows Him that calleth, while the other is either not called at all, or is not called in such a manner,—are unsearchable judgments of God.”(573) b) What is meant by “predestination of the elect”? In view of the many errors that have arisen with regard to this important dogma, it is necessary to start with clearly defined terms.