would utterly put out their remembrance from under heaven. This has indeed come to pass, for the Amalekites, as a people, are long since extinct; therefore with them, literally, war cannot be carried on from generation to generation. But as all the historical narratives recorded in the Divine Word are written to shew, or shadow forth, the journeys of the Israel of God in all ages, from a state of mental bondage, signified by Egypt, to the land of promise, a condition of liberty and peace, so the Amalekites are to be viewed in respect to those affections and thoughts which governed them in their general life and conduct.
Amalek is a name which literally means to strike or to destroy, and is put, spiritually, to denote that which assaults or destroys in the soul of man. Hence the Amalekites are those false persuasions of the mind which are grounded in the love of treachery, deceit, and interior evils. Is it not, then, dear reader! a mark of infinite mercy, that these inward falsities and evils, which pollute the affections, darken the intellect, and thus shut out the kingdom of God, should be opposed and conquered? and that they should be discomfited, as Joshua did the Amalekites? is it not a determination of pure mercy that the Lord will have war with these from generation to generation? Inward sin, with all its defiling pursuits, corrupts the heart, and moulds the soul into a sordid, sensual, and degraded slave. We must, by Divine guidance, conquer sin before our brows can be adorned with the crown of victory and life! There are but few amongst the sons of men who have not felt, while progressing in religious truth, the injuries inflicted by Amalek; and many false persuasions and evil inclinations have assaulted
