All things being prepared — the iniquity of the catholic apostasy being matured, the executioners of judgment upon it being ready, and the 144,000 to be taken from it duly sealed — there was no longer any reason for holding back the tempests that were appointed to blast “the earth,” “the sea,” and “the trees,” of the section of the catholic dominion doomed to judicial overthrow. We proceed, then, to consider them in the order of the release, which was successive and not contemporary; that is, the winds did not rush forth against all “the four corners of the earth" at the same instant, which would have been to make the winds blow against each other instead of against the earth and
sea. In ch. 7:1,2, we are not informed as to the order and effects of the blowing of the winds. It is not said whether the blowing was consecutive or not. They were to blow when released, and their blowing would be, in the general, injurious; this is all that can be extracted from the testimony there. It was reserved for the latter half of the eighth chapter to reveal the details omitted in the seventh. These have been sufficiently supplied in the symbolism of the first four trumpets, which are clearly identical with, and expository of, the four winds. Indeed, the reference to the winds, in ch. 7:1, is a prefatory announcement to the first four trumpets, as the angel-proclamation of “Woe,” in ch. 8:13, is prefatory to the last three of the seven. The first four are, therefore, very properly styled “Wind-Trumpets," and the last three, “Woes” (ch. 11:14), or “Woe- Trumpets.”
But, before proceeding to expound these “winds” and “woes” in detail, it may assist the reader in the comprehension of so much of the Seventh Seal as is hitherto interpreted in this work, to present him with the following: