the Scriptures,
penury and loss of all one's wealth, these are not perfection but
means to perfection, since not in them does the school of perfection
find its end, but through them it achieves its end," and he had
already said that "we endeavor to ascend by these steps to the
perfection of charity."

Reply Obj. 1: In this saying of our Lord something is indicated as
being the way to perfection by the words, "Go, sell all thou hast,
and give to the poor"; and something else is added wherein perfection
consists, when He said, "And follow Me." Hence Jerome in his
commentary on Matt. 19:27, says that "since it is not enough merely
to leave, Peter added that which is perfect: 'And have followed
Thee'"; and Ambrose, commenting on Luke 5:27, "Follow Me," says: "He
commands him to follow, not with steps of the body, but with devotion
of the soul, which is the effect of charity." Wherefore it is evident
from the very way of speaking that the counsels are means of
attaining to perfection, since it is thus expressed: "If thou wilt be
perfect, go, sell," etc., as though He said: "By so doing thou shalt
accomplish this end."

Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (De Perf. Justit. viii) "the
perfection of charity is prescribed to man in this life, because one
runs not right unless one knows whither to run. And how shall we know
this if no commandment declares it to us?" And since that which is a
matter of precept can be fulfilled variously, one does not break a
commandment through not fulfilling it in the best way, but it is
enough to fulfil it in any way whatever. Now the perfection of Divine
love is a matter of precept for all without exception, so that even
the perfection of heaven is not excepted from this precept, as
Augustine says (De Perf. Justit. viii [*Cf. De Spir. et Lit. XXXVI]),
and one escapes transgressing the precept, in whatever measure one
attains to the perfection of Divine love. The lowest degree of Divine
love is to love nothing more than God, or contrary to God, or equally
with God, and whoever fails from this degree of perfection nowise
fulfils the precept. There is another degree of the Divine love,
which cannot be fulfilled so long as we are on the way, as stated
above (A. 2), and it is evident that to fail from this is not to be a
transgressor of the precept; and in like manner one does not
transgress the precept, if one does not attain to the intermediate
degrees of perfection, provided one attain to the lowe