And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This [is] the sign which the LORD hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that [are] upon it shall be poured out.
Ver. 3. Behold, the altar shall be rent.] To foreshow the downfall of that idolatry. So the veil of the temple rent at Christ's death, Mat 27:51 to show that there was an end of the Levitical liturgy. And so, about the beginning of the Reformation by Luther, a great solid stone fell down upon a brass image of Peter in Rome, that had those words fairly embossed upon it, Tu es Petrus, &c., You are Peter &c., and so shattered it to pieces, that nothing was left legible, but only those words, Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, I will build my Church. This might be a foretoken of Rome's ruin: which God hath already begun, and will surely perfect.