erefore by obeying He merited His exaltation and thus He merited
something for Himself.

_I answer that,_ To have any good thing of oneself is more excellent
than to have it from another, for "what is of itself a cause is
always more excellent than what is a cause through another," as is
said _Phys._ viii, 5. Now a thing is said to have, of itself, that
of which it is to some extent the cause. But of whatever good we
possess the first cause by authority is God; and in this way no
creature has any good of itself, according to 1 Cor. 4:7: "What hast
thou that thou hast not received?" Nevertheless, in a secondary
manner anyone may be a cause, to himself, of having certain good
things, inasmuch as he cooperates with God in the matter, and thus
whoever has anything by his own merit has it, in a manner, of
himself. Hence it is better to have a thing by merit than without
merit.

Now since all perfection and greatness must be attributed to Christ,
consequently He must have by merit what others have by merit; unless
it be of such a nature that its want would detract from Christ's
dignity and perfection more than would accrue to Him by merit. Hence
He merited neither grace nor knowledge nor the beatitude of His soul,
nor the Godhead, because, since merit regards only what is not yet
possessed, it would be necessary that Christ should have been without
these at some time; and to be without them would have diminished
Christ's dignity more than His merit would have increased it. But the
glory of the body, and the like, are less than the dignity of
meriting, which pertains to the virtue of charity. Hence we must say
that Christ had, by merit, the glory of His body and whatever
pertained to His outward excellence, as His Ascension, veneration,
and the rest. And thus it is clear that He could merit for Himself.

Reply Obj. 1: Fruition, which is an act of charity, pertains to the
glory of the soul, which Christ did not merit. Hence if He merited by
charity, it does not follow that the merit and the reward are the
same. Nor did He merit by charity inasmuch as it was the charity of a
comprehensor, but inasmuch as it was that of a wayfarer. For He was
at once a wayfarer and a comprehensor, as was said above (Q. 15, A.
10). And therefore, since He is no longer a wayfarer, He is not in
the state of meriting.

Reply Obj. 2: Because by nature Christ is God and the Son of God, the
Divine glory and the lordship of all things are due to