16:10 {8} And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

(8) The story of the first angel, who strikes the kingdom of the beast with two plagues abroad the darkness, with biles and distresses most grievous, throughout his whole kingdom that by this he might wound the conscience of the wicked, and punish the perverse obstinacy of the idolaters: of which arose perturbation, and thence a furious indignation and desperate madness, raging against God and hurtful to itself.

16:10,11 THE FIFTH VIAL.

The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast. By the throne of the beast (Revised Version) must be meant the seat of his power.

16:10 The four first phials are closely connected together; the fifth concerns the throne of the beast, the sixth the Mahometans, the seventh chiefly the heathens. The four first phials and the four first trumpets go round the whole earth; the three last phials and the three last trumpets go lengthways over the earth in a straight line. The fifth poured out his phial upon the throne of the wild beast - It is not said, on the beast and his throne. Perhaps the sea will then be vacant. And his kingdom was darkened - With a lasting, not a transient, darkness. However the beast as yet has his kingdom. Afterward the woman sits upon the beast. and then it is said, The wild beast is not, Rev 17:3,7,8.

16:8-11 The heart of man is so desperately wicked, that the most severe miseries never will bring any to repent, without the special grace of God. Hell itself is filled with blasphemies; and those are ignorant of the history of human nature, of the Bible, and of their own hearts, who do not know that the more men suffer, and the more plainly they see the hand of God in their sufferings, the more furiously they often rage against him. Let sinners now seek repentance from Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, or they will have the anguish and horror of an unhumbled, impenitent, and desperate heart; thus adding to their guilt and misery through all eternity. Darkness is opposed to wisdom and knowledge, and forebodes the confusion and folly of the idolaters and followers of the beast. It is opposed to pleasure and joy, and signifies anguish and vexation of spirit.



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