86. Take this example: If I had been born in Venice or Rome, and if I were a Reformed Christian; ought my country, or where I was born, to be loved, for its spiritual good? I cannot love it on that account, nor on account of its moral and civil good in so far as this depends, as it does, on its spiritual good. In so far, however, as it does not depend on this, I can, even though that country hates me. So I must not hate an unfriendly or hostile country, but must still love it, bringing no harm upon it, but having regard for its good, in so far as it has good, but not having such regard to it as to confirm it in its own falsity and evil.
But more about the love of country in another place.