cause His
soul was beatified from the first instant of His conception.
Therefore neither did He merit exaltation, as to the glory of His
body, from the Passion.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (Phil. 2:8): "He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross; for which cause God also
exalted Him."

_I answer that,_ Merit implies a certain equality of justice: hence
the Apostle says (Rom. 4:4): "Now to him that worketh, the reward is
reckoned according to debt." But when anyone by reason of his unjust
will ascribes to himself something beyond his due, it is only just
that he be deprived of something else which is his due; thus, "when a
man steals a sheep he shall pay back four" (Ex. 22:1). And he is said
to deserve it, inasmuch as his unjust will is chastised thereby. So
likewise when any man through his just will has stripped himself of
what he ought to have, he deserves that something further be granted
to him as the reward of his just will. And hence it is written (Luke
14:11): "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

Now in His Passion Christ humbled Himself beneath His dignity in four
respects. In the first place as to His Passion and death, to which He
was not bound; secondly, as to the place, since His body was laid in
a sepulchre and His soul in hell; thirdly, as to the shame and
mockeries He endured; fourthly, as to His being delivered up to man's
power, as He Himself said to Pilate (John 19:11): "Thou shouldst not
have any power against Me, unless it were given thee from above."
And, consequently, He merited a four-fold exaltation from His
Passion. First of all, as to His glorious Resurrection: hence it is
written (Ps. 138:1): "Thou hast known my sitting down"--that is, the
lowliness of My Passion--"and My rising up." Secondly, as to His
ascension into heaven: hence it is written (Eph. 4:9): "Now that He
ascended, what is it, but because He also descended first into the
lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that
ascended above all the heavens." Thirdly, as to the sitting on the
right hand of the Father and the showing forth of His Godhead,
according to Isa. 52:13: "He shall be exalted and extolled, and shall
be exceeding high: as many have been astonished at him, so shall His
visage be inglorious among men." Moreover (Phil. 2:8) it is written:
"He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death
of the cross: for which cause also God hath exalted Him, and