A REFUTATION Of a false and Impious Aspersion cast on the late Lord COTTINGTON,  by the Writer of the Popish Currant. 
THe Petty scribbler of Popish lies in his Sacrilegious libel, called, 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, deserved a most grateful Remembrance, it has been thought fit to disabuse the public by a plain Refutation of what is falsely charged 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 justify 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 buried in the Jesuits college there, but on condition that it should be transmitted into England as soon as Popery should be there settled.  
To satisfy the public 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 proved 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 disposal 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 butted and deposited in the English college Church of this City, in th● chapel 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 removed 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 settled: I say in case there were such an Inscription on a Wall there near the place where his Corps was butted, and that this were a true Copy of it( concerning the truth of which I shall not trouble myself to inquire) it plainly appears by the many Errors committed in it, that it was written by root 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 disposal of his body, and might have searched 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 chapel to have a Person of his quality there interred, thought fit whilst his Corps continued in it to have his Memory preserved by some Inscription, and not minding any accurasy in setting down his honorary 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 disposal of his body when they red i●, they set up this general Character of him, which being in a foreign country, 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 trivial Inscription written by some such on a Wall at random 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 answered.  
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 declared 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 designed though still delayed till the Year 78.  
Secondly, If a Reason be desired for the delay, you may consider of what follows.  

1. After his Majesties Restauration, and that Family's being invested in the Lord Cottington's Estate there were considerable sums of Moneys to be raised to pay the said Lords Debts, which could not conveniently be done under some years time.  
2. There happened after that an unhappy difference betwixt the Father Sr. Francis Cottington and his Eldest Son, which lasted some years.  
3. That being ended the Son was willing to settle himself in the world by match before he would resolve of sending for his Uncle's body, and being at length happily settled in the State of Marriage, he did not Enjoy it long e're he dyed.  
4. As for the present Gentleman who is the Soul surviving Heir of the Family, its well known under what unfortunate Circumstances he has lain for these many years past, and is still, notwithstanding which he at length considering himself the last of his Family, and being without any possibility of Issue( unless his Sacred Majesty comiserating his condition shall at some time please to grant him a Commission of Review for the rehearing of his cause, a gracious favour which many able Divines and Civilians conceive very reasonable to be granted) and being therefore desirous to see his Uncles Will fulfilled before his death; he came to a resolve to pay this Pious Devoir to his deceased Anchester, and lent for his body accordingly, which being done so many Months before the discovery of the Plot, I wonder whence this Libellour concludes it to have any Relation to it, or what imaginable Reason he conceives this Gentleman should have for Anticipating his Uncles Will, if it had been as he from the Spanish Inscription concludes it, for can any man imagine if such an Execrable design as is sworn by the Kings Evidence had been Executed, but there would have followed great Tumults in the Nation, and is it not Obvious to all men that no time could be proper for bringing over a body in such an account but when all Tumults were appeased.   
Again I would ask any rational 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 interred in England whether the catholic Religion were established 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 served 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 questioned 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 scribbler) who gave this Lords Estate to Bradshaw for his Sacrilegious presumption in passing that Execrable Sentence of death on his dread sovereign.  
If it be true what this Popish writer says that the Lord Cottington dyed of the Roman Faith, its no great wonder, if when having before his Eyes the perfidius dealing of the u●●aturall Subjects of England with their sovereign, and finding more In●egrity amongst the Spaniards with whom he had long conversed, 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 its well known that he continued a Protestant for many year after his Exile in Spain, and did not become catholic 〈◇〉 some short time before his death, after he had seen a consummation 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 honorary ●itles, conferred on Persons of desert by their sovereign; he calling the Lord Cottingtons Titles in the Spanish Inscription, Rhadomontado Titles and Offices that perhaps never belonged to him: I must confess there are many errors in that Inscription, but I must tell this impudent scribbler( 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 glozing and commenting upon the Old Golden Legend,( a Book looked 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 council, 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 red what worthy services he did as well there as at home for their Majesties and the Nation, but its 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 volume forsooth, of his Incomparable History. And if in the plain way of a christian he can at any time make a●y substan●iall discovery of a Plot contrived either by the Papists or any else against our Sacred King and Government, let him be accursed 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 shane ●●ly be recanted, it shows 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 and will own it to the world a so; when the Kings Evidence has red 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 judgement 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.  
FINIS.