Jeremiah 29:7

Because the life of the flesh is the soul, so the blessed life of humankind is God, of whom the sacred writings of the Hebrews say, "Blessed are people whose God is the Lord." Miserable, therefore, are people who are alienated from God. Yet even this people has a peace of its own that is not to be lightly esteemed, though, indeed, it shall not in the end enjoy it, because it makes no good use of it before the end. But it is our interest that it enjoys this peace meanwhile in this life. As long as the two cities are combined, we enjoy the peace of Babylon. For from Babylon the people of God is so freed that it meanwhile travels in its company. Therefore the apostle also admonished the church to pray for kings and those in authority, assigning as the reason "that we may live a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and love." And the prophet Jeremiah, when predicting the captivity that was to befall the ancient people of God and giving them the divine command to go obediently to Babylonia and thus serve their God, counseled them also to pray for Babylonia, saying, "In its peace you will have peace"—the temporal peace that the good and the wicked together enjoy.

Remember then, that Jeconiah, rejected without any fault of his own, ceased to reign and passed into the custody of the Gentiles when the exile to Babylon took place. Now observe the symbol of things to come in the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in advance. For the Jews did not want our Lord Jesus Christ to reign over them, yet they found no fault in him. He was rejected in his own person and in that of his servants also, and so they passed into the custody of the Gentiles as into Babylon symbolically.… How then do the people of Israel, not now in symbol but in truth, pass into the custody of Babylon? Where did the apostles come from? Were they not from the nation of the Jews? Where did Paul come from? He said, "I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." Many of the Jews then believed in the Lord. From these were the apostles chosen. From these were the more than five hundred brothers, who were allowed to see the Lord after his resurrection. From these were the 120 in the house when the Holy Spirit came down.But what does the apostle in the Acts of the Apostles say, when the Jews refused the word of truth? "We were sent to you, but seeing you have rejected the word of God, see, we turn to the Gentiles." The true passing over into Babylon, which was prefigured in the time of Jeremiah, took place in the spiritual dispensation of the time of the Lord's incarnation. But what does Jeremiah say about these Babylonians to those who were passing into their custody? "For in their peace shall be your peace." When Israel then went into exile in Babylon by Christ and the apostles, that is, when the gospel came to the Gentiles, what did the apostle say, as though by the mouth of Jeremiah in ancient times? "I exhort therefore that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all people. […]

(Chapter 29, verses 1 and following) These are the words of the book that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders of the exile, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.

He also adds, "Seek the peace of the city or the land," "for in its peace will be your peace." This is confirmed by the apostolic exhortation: "I urge, first of all, that intercessions, prayers, requests and thanksgivings be made for all persons, for kings and all who are in high office, that we might live a quiet and tranquil life in all reverence and chastity." Furthermore, according to the mystical understanding, after we are expelled on account of our sins from Jerusalem, that is, the church, and delivered to Nebuchadnezzar, about whom the same apostle said "delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord," and again, "they are those whom I delivered to Satan, that they would learn not to blaspheme," we must not be careless or idle, so as to despair inwardly of salvation, but first we must build homes—on rock, not on sand—the kind of homes that the midwives built in Exodus because they feared the Lord. Second, we must plant gardens or orchards, the kind that the Lord also planted in paradise in Eden, placing within it the tree of life, about which it is written, "The tree of life is for those who will receive it, and blessed is the one who lays hold of it." Third, we must take wives, one of whom is wisdom, about whom Solomon wrote, "Love her, and she will keep you. Embrace her, and she will exalt you," and, in another passage, "I sought to make her my bride, and I became enamored of her beauty." Nor is the one spouse, wisdom, sufficient for us, unless we have the others as well: fortitude, temperance and justice, that we might generate many children with them. We also must give our daughters away to men, that the truth of the faith, which is translated into sons, might espouse good works, which refers to daughters, and good works be united to those healed by faith. […]

And, if they were to pray for and seek the peace of the land of their captivity, much more reason have we to pray for the welfare of the land of our nativity, where we are a free people under a good government, that in the peace thereof we and ours may have peace. Every passenger is concerned in the safety of the ship.