ch.) that "he who
renounces this world, and does all the good he can, is like one who
has gone out of Egypt and offers sacrifice in the wilderness." Now it
belongs specially to religious to renounce the world. Therefore it
belongs to them also to do all the good they can. and so it would
seem that each of them is bound to fulfil all the counsels.

Obj. 3: Further, if it is not requisite for the state of perfection
to fulfil all the counsels, it would seem enough to fulfil some of
them. But this is false, since some who lead a secular life fulfil
some of the counsels, for instance those who observe continence.
Therefore it would seem that every religious who is in the state of
perfection is bound to fulfil whatever pertains to perfection: and
such are the counsels.

_On the contrary,_ one is not bound, unless one bind oneself, to do
works of supererogation. But every religious does not bind himself to
keep all the counsels, but to certain definite ones, some to some,
others to others. Therefore all are not bound to keep all of them.

_I answer that,_ A thing pertains to perfection in three ways. First,
essentially, and thus, as stated above (Q. 184, A. 3) the perfect
observance of the precepts of charity belongs to perfection.
Secondly, a thing belongs to perfection consequently: such are those
things that result from the perfection of charity, for instance to
bless them that curse you (Luke 6:27), and to keep counsels of a like
kind, which though they be binding as regards the preparedness of the
mind, so that one has to fulfil them when necessity requires; yet are
sometimes fulfilled, without there being any necessity, through
superabundance of charity. Thirdly, a thing belongs to perfection
instrumentally and dispositively, as poverty, continence, abstinence,
and the like.

Now it has been stated (A. 1) that the perfection of charity is the
end of the religious state. And the religious state is a school or
exercise for the attainment of perfection, which men strive to reach
by various practices, just as a physician may use various remedies in
order to heal. But it is evident that for him who works for an end it
is not necessary that he should already have attained the end, but it
is requisite that he should by some means tend thereto. Hence he who
enters the religious state is not bound to have perfect charity, but
he is bound to tend to this, and use his endeavors to have perfect
charity.

For the same reason