And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat
of
the beast
The beast is the same with that in ( Revelation
13:1 Revelation
13:11 ) and which again shows that to be one and the same:
the seat or throne of the beast is Rome, which, when the empire
was Pagan, was the seat of Satan, or the dragon, ( Revelation
2:13 ) and when the beast or antichrist was risen, the dragon
gave this seat, as well as his authority to him, ( Revelation
13:2 ) and is that city which is so often called, in this
book, the great city, and is manifestly pointed out by its seven
mountains, on which the city of Rome stood, ( Revelation
17:9 ) and the pouring out of this vial upon it denotes the
destruction of it, when it will be burnt down, and become
desolate, an habitation of devils, of every foul spirit, and
hateful bird, ( Revelation
18:2 Revelation
18:9 ) and this corresponds with the fifth trumpet; for as
that brings in the rise of antichrist, both eastern and western,
who rose much about the same time, so this vial affects him
particularly; the western antichrist, his seat and kingdom. Mr.
Daubuz refers this plague to the expulsion of the western and
eastern emperors from their capital cities, Rome and
Constantinople, and to the mischiefs caused by the antipopes in
the west, and to the quarrels and schism in the Greek churches in
the fourteenth century.
And his kingdom was full of darkness;
not only of the darkness of false doctrine and superstition, for
so it was always, being filled with the smoke of the bottomless
pit; nor only of judicial blindness and darkness, which the
subjects of the antichristian state are given up unto; but rather
of a discovery of all this, with all their hidden works of
darkness, which will now be brought to light; though it seems
chiefly to design the great affliction and distress the
antichristian state will be in at this time, which darkness
sometimes signifies; see ( Isaiah 9:1 Isaiah 9:2 ) ( Jeremiah
13:16 ) ( Amos 5:18 ) it having
lost its sun, the pope, under the preceding vial, and its seat,
the city of Rome, under this: the sense is, that it will be
greatly obscured in its glory and magnificence, in its traffic
and riches, ( Revelation
18:11-19 ) its power and authority will be greatly
diminished, and it will be had in contempt by the princes of the
earth; though it will not as yet be utterly destroyed, for its
utter destruction is reserved for the seventh and last vial. The
allusion is to the plague of darkness in Egypt, ( Exodus
10:21-23 ) . And they gnawed their tongues for pain; these
are the men of the antichristian party, the subjects of the
antichristian kingdom, now become full of darkness, the
worshippers of the beast, and his image; these will gnaw their
tongues, which expresses their inward anguish and distress, their
anger, wrath, and fury, their being filled with revenge, and yet
in an incapacity to execute it, and will even be afraid to
express it; and therefore will bite their tongues in madness; and
this for pain, for the pain of their mind, at the sad and low
estate of the antichristian kingdom.