A SPEECH DELIVERED TO HIS MAJESTY In the Name of the French Church AT THE SAVOY: Containing their Humble Thanks for HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION In favour of those of the FRENCH Nation, Residing within HIS Dominions.  
By A. Lombard, Minister of the said Church.  
Published by Command.  DUM PREMOR ATTOLLO 
London, Printed by Tho. Newcomb, living in Thames-street, over against Baynard's Castle. 1665.   

A SPEECH delivered to His Majesty in the Name of the French Church at the Savoy: Containing their humble Thanks for His Majesty's Declaration in favour of those of the French Nation, residing within His Dominions.  
May it please Your Sacred Majesty,  
IT is the French Church at the Savoy, which now craveth Your Royal and  Audience: And I bring along with me to it, all the Hearts and all the Vows of those of that Nation, who help to compose that Body.  
As I have the honour usually to speak on their behalf to GOD; so have they given me the honourable Commission to speak this day in their Names to His VICEGERENT, one of the most August Lieutenants of the DIVINE MAJESTY, whereof Yours is a most living Character. Neither was it possible (SIRE) to be silent, where there is so great cause to speak, considering the fresh Testimony of Your most Royal Bounty, which we have so lately received by Your Majesty's Declaration in favour of our Nation, whereby You are pleased to suffer their abode in Your Dominions, under the shadow and protection of Your own Throne. How could we forbear after this surprising GRACE, and extraordinary FAVOUR, at the least to evidence in some measure unto Your Sacred Majesty, what our Hearts are big with on this eminent Occasion; and in this Important conjuncture, to testify some part of our Duty and Acknowledgements? Which (SIRE) are so full, that we cannot possibly produce them all together, nor in their real extents, for they lose considerably whilst they are rising from our Hearts but to our Lips, such are our transports and our joys within.  
Each good Frenchman within Your Kingdoms, is doubtless full of this sense, and especially such whom You permit here to enjoy the greatest and most dear of all Interests, and to be as it were linked unto Your own Crown, by the Sacred ties of Religion, and by the Sympathy of the same FAITH. But (GREAT SIR) suffer us, we beseech You, to presume that our Church and Congregation may challenge a Right for her particular Application upon the occasion of this Your General Declaration; and that she ought to behold it with an Eye and Light much differing from the rest of the French; and that discerning therein a more especial concernment and interest, she hath with reason imposed on herself a more singular way of acknowledgement.  
No doubt (SIRE) but all Men will observe no less than we do, an infinite Charity in this Your most Prudent Declaration: All Strangers, Your generous Hospitality; And all French, an incomparable Generosity. The wise and knowing, will admire in it Your wonderful penetrating Spirit, as well as Your preventive Policy, which foils and disappoints all the pernicious designs of that of Your Enemies, who must now be obliged to confess, That Your Majesty understands the Art of Reigning in our Hearts, and hath found out an infallible way how to make good Subjects of Natural Frenchmen, even while they remain such. Certainly all Christendom will discover in every part of it, the perfect Genius of Christianity, and will be surprised to see the Spirit of Peace, thus reigning in a Declaration of War. All of the Protestant Profession may learn by it; that Your Majesty doth indeed consider Your Divine Title of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, as the most beautiful Flower of Your Diadem.  
They must consider You, Great Sir, from All the ends of the Earth, where Divine Providence hath placed them, as the Supreme Head of the Reformed World, as the Angel of the Church, and the Light of Israel: And especially the Protestants of our Nation, who remain within Your Majesty's Dominions, and have embraced with us the Reformation, and Discipline of the Church of England, have already, doubtless, with extreme satisfaction observed, in this Your Majesty's Declaration (or rather Oracle) all the Illumination, Piety, Prudence, and Moderation, which every day they so earnestly pray to GOD for upon Your Majesty, in their holy Prayers and Devotions.  
Permit us (SIRE) to repeat it once again, but in few words, lest we abuse Your Royal Patience; That our Church upon this occasion enters into further and more particular thoughts and reflections; and that she enjoys the taste of this Your Majesty's benignity, with more delight and sweetness, than the rest of the French, who have it common with us, because it is a Church which hath the honour to be Your own Workmanship, and owes its Establishment and Subsistence to Yourself.  
She looks upon You (GREAT SIR) as her Founder and Patriarch. It was Your Majesty, that like another Apollo, did fix this floating Island; You provided rest for this Ark, and when we have the Blessing there to present ourselves frequently before the Throne of Grace, we remember, that it is evermore under the blessed shadow and auspicious protection of that of Your Majesty. Therefore as this Church hath been confirmed in her first Privileges by that Your Majesty's wise, Christian, and Protestant Declaration; and that withal, Your Majesty doth thereby sustain her, even when in appearance she was at the point to fall; and that some were prone to believe, that the very Interests of State required her entire destruction;  
Is it not so (most Gracious Sovereign) that she is under a double Obligement to Your Majesty for her conservation and settlement? And that You are now, as it were, a second time her Founder and her Father? And that therefore, albeit the Oracle, by which she subsists still, were pronounced in behalf of all the French, it appears how much more especially it touches and concerns those Members, out of which her Body is framed? And it is also most evident and certain, That our Acknowledgements ought to be, and are much more strong and passionate than those of others.  
But (Gracious Sir) what is there we can do, that may in any measure express it? We have nothing but faint words, and useless thanks to present You with, for that Royal Word (in the terms of Your own Declaration) for that great and saving Word issued from the Royal Mouth of our Cyrus, in favour of all our Tribe. Such yet as they are, these thanks, these words, we are bold to offer them to Your Majesty, as we do most humbly; as sincere, as faithful, as true, as are the words of the Soul itself, her thoughts and motions.  
In this sort only it is, that we presume to tell Your Sacred Majesty, (though in terms, it may be, like Hearts filled with Zeal and Submission) that we render You Declaration for Declaration; and that we think we can not better answer that which Your Majesty hath been pleased to publish in our Favour, then by that we now make to Your Majesty; which is, That we shall never cease to have for Your Majesty, all the Loyalty and Reverence, all the tenderness, zeal, and utmost duty, which the most humble, most obedient, and most faithful of all Your Majesty's Subjects and Servants do owe You.  
FINIS.