C. To the Initial Arguments for the Opposite

125. Through this is plain the answer to the first argument for the opposite [n.6, sc. the keys extend to remitting temporal penalty, and instrumentally to remitting eternal penalty].

To the second [n.7] I say that just as baptism of water first confers grace on someone who does not have it and increases grace for him who does first have it, and often in adults the baptism of desire precedes the baptism of water (but if it not precede, as in children, the first grace would be conferred through the baptism of desire), so frequently here; for commonly adults are justified by attrition, as through merit by congruity, before they confess, according to the authorities of Augustine and Cassiodorus [n.7]; and then in the reception of the sacrament grace is increased in them. But suppose they did not have attrition sufficient by way of merit for justification, and consequently they are existing in sin and yet they in some way confess with attrition in the last instant -they receive grace by virtue of the sacrament. The authorities,     therefore , are speaking of those justified in the first way, but they do not thereby exclude justification in the second way, as is plain by likeness with baptism in the second way.