And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
It will neither be improper nor unprofitable I hope, under the Lord's teaching, if, before we enter upon the several dispensations which seem to be pointed out, under the several trumpets, we do by these as we did by the seals; first, take a general view of them, before we enter into the particulars of them. We find, that as on opening of the fifth seal, cries went up from under the Altar, from the souls of those, whose blood had been shed by persecution; see Revelation 6:9-10. So here, before sounding of the first trumpet, Jesus takes up their cause, and now begins to answer their prayers in the judgments, which, with the sounding of the first trumpet, begins to be poured upon the earth.
Concerning the dispensation of the trumpets, there can be no question, but that their very sound is an alarm. Hence, the Angel thrice proclaims, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, after four of the trumpets had been sounded, by reason of the greater sorrow that was to follow in the earth, under the sounding of the other three. And, indeed, it is evident that the ministry of the seals, which referred to the time when the Empire was heathen, had nothing so awful in it, as the ministry of the trumpets. Opposition from heathenism and idolatry, however in appearance it may seem more directly injurious to the truth than any other, is not in fact so much as what comes from false views of the truth, and the opposition made from those quarters. The man that confessed Christ, but in that confession denies his Godhead, is a greater enemy in reality to Christ, than he that denies his being, and his religion altogether. I have found more bitter hatred from Pharisees, than from all the ungodly, and careless, put them altogether. And very sure I am, that all the open enemies to the truth of the Gospel, in those who deny all revelation, are not to be dreaded for persecution, as much as those are, who on the one hand, reduce the Christian doctrine to a mere system of morality, and while professing themselves to be Christians, deny Christ's Godhead; or on the other, those who though acknowledging his Godhead, and in part his atonement, yet make Christ only a procuring cause, and insist upon man's own attainments and improvements, as being a part Saviour.
The trumpet dispensation, through the whole of that department, intimated a season of greater persecution to the true Church of Christ, though the empire became Christian under the countenance of the Emperors, than while it remained under the darkness of idolatry. Hence the trumpets, from the sounding of the first to the last are gradually opening the steps, by which the persecutions came forward to the overthrow of the empire. God had appointed in the depths of the wisdom of his providence, that those two powers, the Mahometan imposture in the East, called the false prophet; and the folly and iniquity of Popery in the West, called the Beast; should both come forward much about the same time, and afflict the people of God. Hence, about this period it was, that upon the opening of the seventh seal, we find the spreading of Mahomet's imposture covering the East. Arabia, Egypt, and Assyria, soon were detached from the empire of Rome; and the Impostor Mahomet set up his standard in all that vast empire. On the other hand, in the Western world, the trumpery of Popery became soon established; and the great enemy of souls, turning Christian, and taking advantage from the errors of Arian heresy, soon proselyted the multitudes to the doctrine, which complimented man's goodness, at the expense of God's truth; and both these soon divided the eastern from the western world, and which, more or less, (for their iniquity is not full), have continued to the present hour, and must continue, according to this blessed book of prophecy, until the time here predicted, for the accomplishment of both is fulfilled. So much I thought it necessary to observe, on the ministry of the trumpets, in general. We will now go on, under the Lord's permission, and under an humble hope of the, Lord's teaching, to the consideration of the sounding of each trumpet; beginning with the first, and following them regularly one after another, according to the order in which they are placed.