=Source.=--British Museum Pamphlets. E. 412.21.
AN AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE FOR A FIRM AND PRESENT PEACE UPON GROUNDS
OF COMMON RIGHT.
Having by our late labours and hazards made it appear to the world
at how high a rate we value our just freedom, and God having so far
owned our cause as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we
do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the
best care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning
into a slavish condition and the chargeable remedy of another war;
for, it cannot be imagined that so many of our countrymen would have
opposed us in this quarrel if they had understood their own good, so
may we safely promise to ourselves that, when our common rights and
liberties shall be cleared, their endeavours will be disappointed
that seek to make themselves our masters.
Since, therefore, our former oppressions and scarce-yet-ended
troubles have been occasioned, either by want of frequent national
meetings in Council, or by rendering those meetings ineffectual,
we are fully agreed and resolved to provide that hereafter our
representatives be neither left to an uncertainty for the time nor
made useless to the ends for which they are intended.