And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Ver. 1. _A star fall from heaven_] Gr. πεπτωκοτα, that had fallen from heaven, viz. when the third angel sounded,Revelation 8:10, then the bishop of Rome began to fall;... [ Continue Reading ]
And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Ver. 2. _And there arose a smoke_] Of heretical opinions and flagitious practices. All the old heretics fled and hid th... [ Continue Reading ]
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. Ver. 3. _Locusts upon the earth_] So the monks, friars, Jesuits, &c., are fitly called for their numerosity and voracity. The Jesuits have sometimes maintained 200,000 sc... [ Continue Reading ]
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Ver. 4. _And as it was commanded_] As David charged his captains to handle the young man Absalom gently, so an... [ Continue Reading ]
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment _was_ as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. Ver. 5. _And to them it was given_] This is often repeated in this book, to show that though Antichrist and his actua... [ Continue Reading ]
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Ver. 6. _Shall men seek death_] Being brought through anguish of conscience, and fear of wrath, to that pitiful plight that Roger Bishop of Salisbury was, in King Stephen's time,... [ Continue Reading ]
And the shapes of the locusts _were_ like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads _were_ as it were crowns like gold, and their faces _were_ as the faces of men. Ver. 7. _Like unto horses_] Fed and fierce, to run and rush into the battle, as being driven by the devil. _Si videris perse... [ Continue Reading ]
And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as _the teeth_ of lions. Ver. 8. _As the hair of women_] Insinuative, and inductive to sin. _ As the teeth of lions_] Joel 1:6. Catching and carrying to their dens all they can come by, as Tecelius did out of Germany, as Otto sent by Gre... [ Continue Reading ]
And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings _was_ as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. Ver. 9. _And they had breastplates_] Their pretended donations, privileges and exemptions from the secular power; shaking their tippets at kings,... [ Continue Reading ]
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power _was_ to hurt men five months. Ver. 10. _And they had tails_] This may be well meant of their surrogates, officials, chancellors, registrars, apparitors, the fag end of their execrable train. See Isaiah 9:... [ Continue Reading ]
And they had a king over them, _which is_ the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue _is_ Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath _his_ name Apollyon. Ver. 11. _And they had a king over them_] Being herein wiser than those other locusts, Proverbs 30:27 . _ The angel of the bott... [ Continue Reading ]
One woe is past; _and_, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. Ver. 12. _Two woes more hereafter_] In respect of order; for in respect of time, the woes of the fifth and sixth trumpet are together, and do run parallel.... [ Continue Reading ]
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Ver. 13. _From the four horns_] To show, saith one, Christ's sufficiency of power to raise up instruments of his justice, according as by the sins of men he is provoked. To show, saith anot... [ Continue Reading ]
Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. Ver. 14. _Loose the four angels_] That is, those four potent peoples, the Arabians, the Saracens, the Tartars, and the Turks, that they may march out against Christendom, to murder a... [ Continue Reading ]
And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. Ver. 15. _And the four angels were loosed_] As fierce and fell creatures out of a cave, now set upon spoil and rapine. They have a proverb in the eastern parts, W... [ Continue Reading ]
And the number of the army of the horsemen _were_ two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. Ver. 16. _Two hundred thousand thousand_] Not so many at any one time, but in several ages and battles. Howbeit the Turk goes usually into the field 200,000 strong; many times he hath mo... [ Continue Reading ]
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses _were_ as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. Ver. 17. _Breastplates of fire, &c._] Muskets, arque... [ Continue Reading ]
By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. Ver. 18. _The third part of men killed_] Not only of Christians, but also of their own; most of their poor being forced with victuals and other necessaries to foll... [ Continue Reading ]
For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails _were_ like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. Ver. 19. _In their mouth, and in their tails_] Like the serpent Amphisbaena, _a_ that hath a head (to do hurt) at both ends. (Plin.) Perhaps the Turks' perfid... [ Continue Reading ]
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Ver. 20. _That they should not worship devil... [ Continue Reading ]
Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. Ver. 21. _Neither repented_] Being stupefied, as those asses in Etruria that feed upon hemlock. (Matthiol. in Dioscoria.) They that make them are like unto them. See Isaiah 44:17 .... [ Continue Reading ]