at of the beast" is the object of the fifth vial.
The "beast" is all along from chapter xi. 7, the Roman empire. The
"image of the beast," we have found to be the papacy, (ch. xiii. 14,
15.) Now the "seat (throne) of the beast," would seem to point to the
metropolis, where the Pope, as a kind of imperial,
politico-ecclesiastical head, keeps his court, and whence decrees are
issued. This plague is like the ninth inflicted upon Egypt, (Exod. x.
21.) It was the last but one, and left Pharaoh still impenitent. Just so
here; although this vial is the last but one to be poured out on the
western limb of the great antichristian conspiracy: the population of
the spiritual empire repress their complaints before men,--"they gnawed
their tongues for pain;" while they in their hearts "curse their king
and their God, and look upward." (Is. viii. 21.) This may be understood
to be the actual condition of the Pope and his retainers at the present
time, and especially since the year 1848, when he was forced to flee
from Rome. _Darkness_ is the emblem of distress, of mental despair, (Ps.
xxxv. 8; Is. viii. 22;) and the actual relation of European powers to
the see of Rome,--Austria, France, Spain, and the Italian states, is not
calculated to mitigate, but rather to augment and irritate the "pains
and the sores" inflicted by this and former vials.

We can, however, offer only conjectures here, and dare not be too
confident; for learned and pious expositors are of the opinion that all
the vials are comprehended under the seventh trumpet; that the seventh
trumpet has not yet begun to sound; and consequently, that the vials are
all future. On the other hand, equally learned and godly interpreters of
these Apocalyptic hieroglyphics, are very confident that the _sixth_
vial is in process of pouring out in our present time; and that in fact
its effects are obviously traceable in providence. Already we have
indicated our humble opinion, that all the vials are not necessarily
comprehended under the seventh trumpet; inasmuch as the opening of the
last seal disclosed equally trumpets and vials: yet doubtless it is
requisite that the series of the trumpets should precede that of the
vials, while nothing hinders that of both series should cotemporate. We
may conceive that as the first four trumpets demolished the western
member of the Roman empire, and the next two the eastern limb, so the
vials may be distributed in a manner somewhat similar. The sec