greater virtue than obedience.

_I answer that,_ Just as sin consists in man contemning God and
adhering to mutable things, so the merit of a virtuous act consists
in man contemning created goods and adhering to God as his end. Now
the end is greater than that which is directed to the end. Therefore
if a man contemns created goods in order that he may adhere to God,
his virtue derives greater praise from his adhering to God than from
his contemning earthly things. And so those, namely the theological,
virtues whereby he adheres to God in Himself, are greater than the
moral virtues, whereby he holds in contempt some earthly thing in
order to adhere to God.

Among the moral virtues, the greater the thing which a man contemns
that he may adhere to God, the greater the virtue. Now there are
three kinds of human goods that man may contemn for God's sake. The
lowest of these are external goods, the goods of the body take the
middle place, and the highest are the goods of the soul; and among
these the chief, in a way, is the will, in so far as, by his will,
man makes use of all other goods. Therefore, properly speaking, the
virtue of obedience, whereby we contemn our own will for God's sake,
is more praiseworthy than the other moral virtues, which contemn
other goods for the sake of God.

Hence Gregory says (Moral. xxxv) that "obedience is rightly preferred
to sacrifices, because by sacrifices another's body is slain whereas
by obedience we slay our own will." Wherefore even any other acts of
virtue are meritorious before God through being performed out of
obedience to God's will. For were one to suffer even martyrdom, or to
give all one's goods to the poor, unless one directed these things to
the fulfilment of the divine will, which pertains directly to
obedience, they could not be meritorious: as neither would they be if
they were done without charity, which cannot exist apart from
obedience. For it is written (1 John 2:4, 5): "He who saith that he
knoweth God, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar . . . but he
that keepeth His word, in him in very deed the charity of God is
perfected": and this because friends have the same likes and dislikes.

Reply Obj. 1: Obedience proceeds from reverence, which pays worship
and honor to a superior, and in this respect it is contained under
different virtues, although considered in itself, as regarding the
aspect of precept, it is one special virtue. Accordingly, in so far
as