THESE are the footsteps which all the saints, as they were returning to their Country, left behind, that, treading in their prints, we might also follow them in their joys.* Let us consider that Paradise is our country,* as well as theirs: and so we shall begin to reckon the Patriarchs as our fathers.
Why do we not, then, hasten and run, that we may behold our Country and salute our parents? A great multitude of dear ones is there expecting us: a vast and mighty crowd of parents, brothers, and children, secure now of their own safety, anxious yet for our salvation, longs that we may come to their sight and embrace — to that joy which will be common to us and to them — to that pleasure expected by our celestial fellow-servants, as well as ourselves — to that full and perpetual felicity.
See Romans 4:12, where St Paul bids us follow in the footprints of Abraham. In 1 Peter 2:21, we are bidden to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and all the disciples of Christ follow one another in these same steps in [getjvref:2 Corinthians 12:18].
See Philippians 3:20: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ”. ‘Conversation’ is a Middle English word for what we today might call the business of daily relationships; Paul is saying that Christians should live as if they already lived in the country of heaven, adapting themselves to its culture and ways in advance.