THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVEN TRUMPETS OF Revelation 8 And 9

The great leading features of Daniel’s visions were the four great governments of antiquity, beginning with the Babylonian, and ending with the Roman, in its papal form. Not so, however, with John; he lived when three of those governments had passed away, and the fourth and last was in being, and in the height of its glory, as an universal monarchy. Under that government John was in banishment on the isle of Patmos, “for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Accordingly, instead of predicting the rise and triumph of either of those four great governments, it was his part to give the prophetic history of the fall of the last of the four, and give us the various means by which that great persecuting system should come to ruin.SSTR 1.1

The first decisive step in the downfall of Rome, was the removal of the seat of empire from the west to the east. Until then its unity had been very faithfully preserved. After that, division and subdivision became the order of the day, until the final ruin of the empire.SSTR 1.2

The sounding of the seven trumpets I understand to shadow forth the instrumentalities by which the Roman empire was to be overthrown and subverted, and finally ruined.SSTR 1.3

The empire, after Constantine, was divided into three parts; and hence the frequent remark, “a third part of men,” etc., in allusion to the third part of the empire which was under the scourge. Under the first four trumpets the two western divisions fell, and under the fifth and sixth the eastern empire was crushed; but under the seventh trumpet great Babylon entire will sink to rise no more at all.SSTR 2.1

In giving an outline of this subject, I shall, for the most part, follow Keith, in his “Signs of the Times,” on the first four trumpets. I should be glad to give his remarks and historical quotations entire, would my limits, which are prescribed for this work, admit it.SSTR 2.2

The subject properly begins with the second verse of the eighth chapter; and the first verse should have been annexed to the seventh chapter, it being the conclusion of the opening of the seals.SSTR 2.3

From verses 2-5 of chapter 8, we have the prefatory remarks, prefatory to the sounding of the first angel.SSTR 2.4