Thus if we too are a numerous people and the Lord blesses us, we hear from Jesus, You are a numerous people; go up into the forest, and clear and prepare a place for yourself in the land. Purge the Perizzites and Rephaites. Therefore, we must cast out the Perizzites. Moreover, we find the Perizzites to mean fructification. But just as we have already often said concerning other names, the meaning in this one is also twofold, for there is a good fructification and a bad one, as it is pointed out in the Gospels, A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.^[1] Therefore, it is fitting for us to expel everything that does not bear fruit properly and to cut away the fruit of sin and to purge the fruit of unrighteousness.

For if at last we come to perfection, then the Canaanite is said to have been exterminated by us and handed over to death. But as to how this is accomplished in our flesh, hear the apostle saying, Mortify your members that are upon the earth: fornication, impurity,^[1] and the other things that follow. And again it says, For those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and lusts.^[2] Thus, therefore, in the third stage, that is, when we come to perfection and mortify our members and carry around the death of Christ in our body, the Canaanite is said to be exterminated by us.