And the fifth angel sounded
His trumpet:
and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the
earth:
some take this star to be Jesus Christ, the bright and morning
star; and understand by falling, no other than his descending
from heaven to earth, in which sense the word is used in (
Genesis
14:10 ) ; and that because he is not only said to have the
keys of hell and death, ( Revelation
1:18 ) ; but particularly the key of the bottomless pit, (
Revelation 20:1 ) ; but
then there is a wide difference in the use of the key by the star
here, and the angel there, or between the opening of the pit, and
letting out smoke and locusts, and the shutting it up, and Satan
in it; the one well suits with Christ, the other not: nor is
Satan here designed, as others think, who once was a bright star,
and shone among the morning stars, but by sin fell from heaven,
his first estate; and the fall of this Lucifer, son of the
morning, was as lightning from heaven, ( Luke 10:18 ) . But then
this was a matter over and past, and what was well known to John;
nor did he need a vision to represent this unto him: nor is Arius
intended, who lived before any of the trumpets were blown; nor
the Emperor Valens, who fell from the heavenly doctrine of
Christ's divinity into the Arian heresy, which he encouraged and
defended; whereby Christ, the sun of righteousness, was obscured,
and the air, the church, enlightened by Christ, was darkened; in
whose time the locusts, the Goths and Vandals, infected with
Arianism, greatly distressed the eastern Christians; but his
reign was long before the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, which
was after the year 600: wherefore by this star is meant
antichrist; but whether the western or eastern antichrist, the
pope of Rome, or Mahomet, is a question: some interpreters go one
way, and some another: Brightman thinks both are intended, seeing
they both are antichrist, and rose to the height of their power
much about the same time; and the characters and circumstances in
this vision very. Well agree with them both: what is objected to
Mahomet is, that he never was a doctor or teacher in the church,
or had any dignity in it, which a star in this book most commonly
signifies, and therefore could not be said to fall from it; but
this may be observed, that the Arabians, among whom he lived, had
received the Christian religion before his time; that he himself
was conversant with the Scriptures, as appears by his wretched
perversion of them in his Alcoran; and certain it is, that his
accomplices were such as had professed Christianity, as Sergius,
a Nestorian of Constantinople, and John of Antioch, an Arian, and
he himself set up for a prophet: others think the pope of Rome is
meant by the star, seeing the bishops of that city had shone out
in great light and purity of doctrine and practice formerly, but
now about this time most sadly apostatized; they had been indeed
gradually declining for some time, but now they may be said
openly to fall from heaven, when Phocas, who murdered his master,
the Emperor Mauritius, and took the imperial crown to himself,
gave to Pope Boniface the Third the title and power of universal
bishop, about the year 606, which he and his successors exercised
in a most haughty and tyrannical manner:
and to him was given the key of the bottomless
pit;
which shows that this could not be a star in a literal sense, but
must design some man, or body of men, and agrees well with the
popes of Rome: by "the bottomless pit" is meant hell, out of
which the beast arose, and into which Satan will be cast, (
Revelation 11:7 ) (
17:8 ) ( 20:3 ) ;
and by "the key" is designed the power of it, of opening and
shutting it, of saving persons from it, or of casting them into
it; and which the popes of Rome take to themselves, even all
power in heaven, earth, and hell, signified by their triple
crown; and which they arrogate to such a degree as to say, that
if the pope should send many thousands into hell, no one ought to
say, what dost thou? This is a different key from what were given
to Peter; he had the keys of the kingdom of heaven, his pretended
successors have the key of the bottomless pit; his were keys of
knowledge, theirs of ignorance, and of the depths of Satan, let
out of this bottomless pit, of which the antichristian religion,
both Popish and Mahometan, consist; his were given by Christ,
theirs by Phocas a murderer; or they had their power from the
dragon, ( Revelation
13:2 Revelation
13:4 ) ; from Satan himself, according to whose working and
influence they come forth, though by divine permission.