THe Petty Scribler of Popish lyes in his Sacrilegious Libell , call'd , The Popish Currant , set forth on Friday the 18th . of Feb. having cast a false and Impious Aspersion on a Person of great worth and honour , many years since deceas d whose most signal services to his K. and Country during the course of his life , deserv'd a most grateful Remembrance , it has been thought fit to disabuse the Publick by a plain Refutation of what is falsly charg'd upon him by this Impostor .

He says in the first Page of that Popish Currant , that it s a certain truth which he is ready to Justifie to the Teeth of any ●ory Cavillers , ( for so he calls all those that question the truth of his malicious Impostures ) That the Lord Cottington dying at Valladolid in Spain , by his Will ordered his Corps to be for the then present buryed in the Jesuits Colledge there , but on condition that it should be transmitted into England as soon as Popery should be there setled .

To satisfie the publick of what is truth , in this Assertion they are hereby made acquainted that the Lord Cottington's Will which he made at Valladolid , was brought over into England shortly after his Decease by some of his Servants , and was prov'd and entred in the Prerogative Office in the month of August 1666. where any man may see it that please ; in which Will the whole clause relating to the disposall of his body , is word for word , as follows .

I Order when it pleaseth the Almighty God to take me out of this present world , that my body be buried and deposited in the English Colledge Church of this City , in th● Chappell and place where my Executors please to dispose it , till it please the Almighty God to settle the differences of the Kingdom of England , that my Nephews and Executors in due time may have it remov'd thither .

And this is the whole truth and nothing but the truth of the Lord Cottingtons Last , and only Will and Testament at Valadolid for the disposal of hi● body , as is ready to be justified to the Teeth of any impudent Impostor that dares question it .

As to the Spanish Inscription which he says was on the Lord Cottingtons Tomb at Valladolid , ( though in truth he had no Tomb there ) on which the Libellour seems to have grounded his Presumption for its being that Lords Will to have his Corps transmitted into England as soon as Popery should be there setled : I say in case there were such an Inscription on a Wall there near the place where his Corps was buried , and that this were a true Copy of it ( concerning the truth of which I shall not trouble my self to enquire ) it plainly appears by the many Errors commited in it , that it was written by rote and without any due attention to the truth of what is said & the Libellour who is free enough to question the truth of the Titles and Offices there given him , had he been ingenious might have suspected as well the truth of what is there said to be his Will concerning the disposall of his body , and might have search'd the proper Office , where his true Will was to be found .

Any man of a Candid disposition having seen the careless wording of that Spanish Inscription , would have given at least this Candid Interpretation of it , that the Fathers there looking upon it as an Honour to their Chappel to have a Person of his quality there inter'd , thought fit whilst his Corps continued in it to have his Memory preserv'd by some Inscription , and not minding any accurasy in setting down his Honourary Titles , and probably not having seen his Will , but hearing something confusedly of it , or at least not minding the Exact words of it for the Future disposall of his body when they read i● , they set up this general Character of him , which being in a Forraign Countrey , and his Corps being not to be continued there , they thought needed not any great Exactness .

In the mean time it seems somewhat strange that this Popish Libellour who thinks it unreasonable that a true Protestant as himself should give the least credit either to the living Oaths or dying Protestations , if any Jesuit or Papist should build so much on a Triviall Inscription written by some such on a Wall at Randome as to think it a most convincing Argument ( as he calls it ) of the certainty of the Plot .

Another thing which weig●s much with this Popish writer is that this body was not brought over till somewhat near the time of the discovery of the Plot . To this its Answer'd .

First , 〈◇〉 a thing well known to hundreds of Gentlemen and Persons of Honour who have been acquainted with that Family , that they have constantly a● all times declar'd since his Majesties Restauration that it was the Will of the Lord Cottington that his body should be brought over upon their being invested in his Estate , and that the thing has been often design'd though still delay'd till the Year 78.

Secondly , If a Reason be desired for the delay , you may consider of what follows .

Again I would ask any rationall man whether he thinks it not naturally probable that any Noble man of England , Papist or Protestant dying beyond the Seas , would order in his Will that his body should be brought over and inter'd in England whether the Catholick Religion were establish't here or not , and whether it be not a thing generally done .

As to the Libellous Reflections on the Earl of Danby for sending his Warrant to the Commissioners of the Custom-house for permitting the Lord Cottingtons bones to be landed without paying duty & so defrauding the King of his Rights ; I only Answer that I do not doubt but his Majesty is well satisfied how tender this Libellour is of his Rights : in the m●●● time if his Majesty please to remit the duty payable for landing a Corps , especially this being the Relict of a person who faithfully serv'd him , lost his Estate , and dyed in Exile for him ; I hope no good Subject has cause to complain .

When this Libellour says that the Lord Cottington was question'd by Parliament , I know not what Parliament he means , unless it be the infernal Rump , ( an honest Parliament I no way doubt to the Humour of this seditious Scribler ) who gave this Lords Estate to Bradshaw for his Sacrilegious presumption in passing that Execrable Sentence of death on his dread Soveraign .

If it be true what this Popish writer sayes that the Lord Cottington dyed of the Roman Faith , it s no great wonder , if when having before his Eyes the perfidius dealing of the u●●aturall Subjects of England with their Soveraign , and finding more In●egrity amongst the Spaniards with whom he had long Converst , he became at length of their Religion : though the Libellour is impiously Injurious to him in this that he calls him a notorious Masqueraded Protestant here , for it s well known that he continued a Protestant for many year after his Exile in Spain , and did not become Catholick 〈◇〉 some short time before his death , after he had seen a Consumation of Malice in the Kings Enemies , and the true Protestant Church here u●erly subver ed.

To conclude , I cannot but take notice of this Fellows vilifying contempt of Honourary ●itles , confer'd on Persons of desert by their Soveraign ; he calling the Lord Cottingtons Titles in the Spanish Inscription , Rhadomontado Titles and Offices that perhaps never belong'd to him : I must confess there are many Errours in that Inscription , but I must tell this impudent Scribler ( he must pardon my Expressions ) if he spent some time in reading the worthy Historians of our Age who record the memorable things of great men , as he spends a good part of his life in reading glossing and commenting upon the Old Golden Legend , ( a Book look'd upon by the Papists themselves as three Forms below the Story of Tom Thumb ) he would find that the Lord Cottington was Baron Cottington of Hanworth , and that in his late Majesties Reign he was Chance●lour of his Majesties Exchequer , master of his Court of Wards , Constable of the Tower , Lord High Treasurer of England , and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Councill , that he was twice Ambassador in Spain , once for the said King , and a second time for his Sacred Majesty now Reigning ; and he might read what worthy services he did as well there as at home for their Majesties and the Nation , but it s beneath this writer to take notice of any mans deserts but his own , well then let him keep to his dear Legend , and by the continuance of his pretty Fables , let his writings deserve the continuance of the Title lately given them of harmless innocent Papers , as he shall have my Vote for being as great an Innocent as any in the Nation , and so let him accomplish the third Vollume forsooth , of his Incomparable History . And if in the plain way of a C●ristian he can at any time make a●y substan●iall discovery of a Plot contriv'd either by the Papists or any else a●ainst our Sacred King and Government , let him be accurst who does not afford him his helping hand in it , and embrace him as a Brother for so doing ; but for him to be so very positive in asserting an impious untruth reflecting on the dead whose Ashes oug●● to be sacred , and vi●ifying persons of Honour , which afterwards must shame ●●ly be recanted , it shews nothing of a Christian , or of a man of any moral honesty , if it was only a heedless mistake in him and not a Voluntary Imposture , I hope when he has seen this Paper ●e will own it to the world a so ; when the Kings Evidence has read this I doubt he will lose their thanks for his Corroborative , the main ingredient of a good Corroborative , honest truth , being here wanting had he only with Candour Related matter of Fact concerning the Spanish Inscription , and left it to the Judgment of the world without his parergon of malicious insinuations and other u●christianly Reflections he should have found nothing but matter of Fact Candidly re●urn'd in Answer , but now , if he dislikes the name of Libel●our and the like , I appeal to the world whether he has not given these names to himself by what he has written , and I protest from my heart I hate to call any man out of his Name .