VIRTUE AND VALOUR VINDICATED Or, the late Hugh and Cry sent after General massy, Pointz, etc. retorted in the teeth of that scandalous Libeler, who being ashamed to show his name, hath discovered his Nature.  
An Enemy to honesty and all honour, and a living Character of inhumanity.  
By I. H.  
Non opus aliquod, aliud operatur nisi ut subvertat.  Chrys. 
LONDON. Printed for T. W. 1647.   

Virtue and valour Vindicated.  
Goodness seldom meets with friends, and Greatness never wanteth enemies, It is the ambition of a coward to overvalue where he dares not, to undervalue where he cannot equalise. Many cares not to crush themselves in the ruins of another, and being demanded by whose hand: 'tis answered, the envious man hath done it. But Asses will be braying, and Dogs will be barking. O what an ingrateful piece of time are we pitched upon! that worthiest actions should have the worst requizals; when those, (to whose conquering swords the honour, and happiness of a Kingdom becomes tributary) shall be recked in pieces on the black tenterhooks of Malice, and lie exposed to all aspersions division can invent, or detraction accumulate, Those Worthies (whose very memorial is of force to make all future ages active unto honour) to save their names and reputations blasted by such airs gripped by those talons, that breath nothing but dishonour, drop nothing but infamy, and that without control (as if it wear an offence to be good, whilst sin is tolerated) speaks the loudest Law invalid, and that Power wherein they sympathise of no effect.  
And therefore (unworthy Libeler) hadst thou contained thyself at home, thou hadst been looked on as a creature unworthy the vindication of the meanest pen; but to belch in public, and thus to print thyself in gall, expect to reapeas thou hast sowed, and like a Dog to lick up that vomit which thou hast spewed into the world.  
The fair deportment military and civil of those Noble Members hath been such (as the major part of the Land can witness) that should I strain a Character on the candour of their actions, the integrity, and immutability of their affections I should but Aureum annulum ferreis stellis, corrodere, set diamonds in jet, or enamile gold with studds of iron; no, let their own works Praise them in the gates, and the great Historian Fame with his golden pencil blazon their high demerits to posterity, whilst my ambition shall be, to sit down and admire their Loyalty, practise their fidelity.  
For my own part, I am not engaged to any of them, (except one) neither hath my acquaintance with them as yet extended, further than the eye: but their full-blown virtues are the Adamants to attract, their triumphant victories, together with their most indelible patience, carried on with constancy, the poles to direct me to a just and necessary vindication.  
And first, I disire all whose hearts were never tainted with disloyalty) to view them not only as men, but Gentlemen; not as scharrabs bred upon a dunghill, not as vapours or wand'ring Meteors tossed by every wind to seek an inconstant being; nor sprung from thd loins of some channel raker, or skipped our of a rat-trap or tinderbox, (as Rabshecah rails it zealously in his 3 page) to be a Common-council man of the City; but descended from the bed of Honour famous in their generations, but as Ignorance is the only Antagonist to knowledge; So true Nobility hath no enemy but Rusticity, and the best of birth are ever vilified by the worst of baseness; which proves the black-mouthed Libeler, his greatness equal with his goodness, his birth answerable to his breeding, his nature servile, as his Name obscure.  
Secondly, Look upon them, many of them who have adventured (next unto heaven) what is dea●est to them, their lives and livelihoods, for the public good. Whetstone had become of Parliament, City, Kingdom, nay Religion, Laws, Liberties, all, had not that renowned Imp of War taken Mars himself by the beard and stopped that Imperial Army in their full career; whose vast bulk covered the deelining West, and stroke terror at a distance to the utmost corners of the Kingdom; Who was he that preserved that Mayden-City from ravishing, which then lay panting to the death, through the fierce assaults of a bloody foe? who was that sublunary engine, that dissipated & defeated all their fatal stratagems, was it not Massy who was he that in the compass of one month with unequalled service, overcame and dispossessed nine royal Garrisons, as scorning to live within the breath of such bad neighbours, was it not Massy with his handful of Myrmidons?  
Who was he that laid the famous Mynn his honour in the dust, (who a little before threatened to set his insulting foot upon the neck of that fair Damosel Gloucster) & delivered him dead, with above an hundred more, at her feet, as the tribute of his virgin love unto her, with hundreds more of (lately crying conquest) Captives? was it not Massy? Who was that thunderbolt that thrilld astonishment in the Danish forest through the popish Army; that broke like a cloud upon them, flashing death in the faces of the Winterian power, confounding all their force, breaking their designs, and returned laden with the spoils of war, and with victorious trophies? Was it not Massy.  
Who was he that went out (from that Command) in such a blaze to add glory unto conquest, and crown his actions with a neverdying honour; when he took the strong Garrisond Evesham, in a storm of fire and leaden hail, the loss whereof did make a King shed tears? was it not Massy?  
And having showed himself a faithful Patriot to an ingrateful people, leaving them secure under their own vines, being departed (as called forth to greater actions and commands) who was he that gored great goring Body thorough with his horse, on that day, that fatal day at Langport, dashing thereby in pieces all the Western powers, that they durst never after show their faces in the field; one of the great blows that cut off the neck of this unnatural war? was it not Massy?  
Who was he that led the Armies of England's Israel through the bowels of the land, routed the Hoptonias strength, and with his armed Troops made his proud foes to tremble with their thunder, hunting them in a warlike sport as the fearful Partridges in the Mountains? Was it not Waller? who even of his very enemies purchased that glorious title of William the Conqueror?  
What shall I say? they are men, therefore subject to Time's standard, Mutability; ever upon the wheel, uncertain, they are valiant Commanders, therefore hated by degenerous cowards, they are eminent and honourable persons, therefore subject unto censure and malice. But yet in spite of envy & all her snaky worms, their names and fames shall our-vie a century of ages. Nec imber edax, nec Aquilo, nec innumerabiles annorum series diruere.  
And now after all their travelling in sweat and blood, to be contemned, and condemned, as traitors (as if it were treason to be faithful) by an inferior and unworthy vassal, whose contagious breath is able to do more hurt than a general plague, and yet to pass without correction as if our laws were dumb, and the executioners without life, shall not this brand the suporters of a State with obloquy, & at last mould us into that slavery, that we shall account it happiness to be miserable? and when such tongues without restraint are let lose, who shall avoid the tyranny of their lash? Kings and Commons shall share alike; yet it is some honour for the servant to suffer with his Lord, and the desciple is not above his master.  
Thirdly, consider their dignity as Members of Parliament made so by free Election, according to the fundamental Laws and customs of the Kingdom, never by order or vote erected (but rather approved of) the House; never detected, for any by secret or contrarious workings, in the house; nor ever for any pretended enemies general or special by any prosecuted before the house: although this licentious piece of barbarism, out of an ambitious zeal to his own ends, hath already presumed to sit in indgment upon them, himself both witness, jury, judge, and excecutioner, the poison of this Scorpion being the potion they must drink, as seditious state-theeves, murderers and Traitors: and if his physic will not work, then hath he sentenced them to that easy death (as the Jshmael scoffs it) of hanging drawing and quartering (which no doubt) will return upon himself.  
For being members of that high Court (which is the only visible & collective Body politic of the kingdom & having motion and influence in all their public agitations from the said body, acting nothing but by vote and virtue from the House, as well in the late City proceedings as other wise; whatsoever violence opposing or dishonour falls one them, must needs reflect upon the whole Body natural, one or some members suffering all the Members unitedly do condole.  
Therefore now, that either part or the whole collecting Body of a kingdom; some and consequently all the Members of Parliament by an injurious libeler a snarling Hell hound, should be sentenced, judged, condemned and excecuted, at one breath, at one blow comes under no less honour than that infernal piece engeny of the powder plot; the Cavaliers Rashness, the apprentices rudeness were, motes to this catarrh, molehills to this mountain; time cannot produce a parallel (since first this Nation became a Monarchy.) of such an entrenchment upon, such an impeachment of, such a treason committed against a Parliament, to the utter abolition of all authorit violation of true honour, and perpetual infamy of the highest ●VDICATORY in this Kingdom under heaven.  
Neither doth this traitor alone impugn and destroy our State, but endeavour the ruin of religion also in casting dirt in the face, and making a ludibry of the daughter of Zion: and of her shepherds, whose very feet are beautiful; as if that Government established by public authority, were but made as a lack of Lent for iniquity to play withal, or raised as a Butt to shoot his tongue at. But as if England were 〈◊〉 narrow to restrain his malice, to slight a morsel for this all devouring Dragon, Scotland also must share his calumny, in his nasty Epithets, and be made the object of his malice, which h●w they will endure I leave to the future to discourse. Appealing unto all, that are tender of the Kingdom's peace, to judge hereof, & especially to the high court of Parliament (whom it most concerns) for justice against this grand e●em to the common good; this Scandalum Magnatum, that he may receive reward according to the Laws & his deserts, that such obstructions & abominations being removed, all sound of war may be stroke dumb & muffled peace established, unity continued, his Maj. person and just rights protected, the Parl: honoured, & confirmed, the Church enlarged and God Almighty glorified.  
FINIS.