Revelation 9:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I saw a star fall from heaven— Stars, in the language of prophesy, signify angels; see ch. Revelation 1:20. The angels of the heavenly host, as well as the angels or bishops of the churches, seem to be called stars in scripture; as when at the creation, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, Job 38:7. In like manner, when the abyss or bottomless pit is shut up, it is represented in this prophesy, as done by an angel coming from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit. These expressions are so nearly the same, as well as upon the same subject, that they may be well taken in the same sense, and so used to explain each other. The expression, then, a star is fallen from heaven, or an angel come down from heaven, with a key to open the bottomless pit, seems naturally to mean the permission of the divine Providence for these evil and calamitous events, which are described to follow from opening the bottomless pit, which could not have happened but by the permission of the divine Providence, and according to the wise and holy orders of the divine government. For the providence of God could as surely have prevented the temptations of Satan, and the powers of darkness, as if Satan and his angels had been fast locked up and secured in a safe prison; so that he sends an angel, his messenger, with the key of the bottomless pit, to open the prison, and permit them to go out;—to teach, that they can only act so far as they have leave and permission, and can always be restrained and shut up again at the good pleasure of the supreme Governor of the world. The abyss, or bottomless pit, is explained in this prophesy itself to be that place where the devil and Satan are shut up, that they should not deceive the nations: ch. Revelation 20:1-3. The abyss seems also to be used in the same sense, when the devils besought Christ that he would not command them to go out into the deep; αβυσσον : and Grotius observes, that this abyss is the same with what St. Peter calls hell, or Tartarus, 2 Peter 2:4. Now this prison of Satan and of his angels bya righteous judgment of God is permitted to be opened for the just punishment of apostate churches, who would not repent of their evil works. We may therefore say, with the Bishop of Meaux, "Behold, something more terrible than we have hitherto seen; hell opens, and the devil appears, followed by an army of a stranger figure than St. John has any where else described:" And we may observe from others, that this great temptation of the faithful was to be with the united force of false doctrine and persecution. Hell, in this sense, does not open of itself; it is always some false teacher that opens it; by which means Satan is loosed, and deceives the nations. Instead of the bottomless pit, some render it the well of the abyss, or bottomless gulph. Mahomet is the star, and the Saracens the locusts.