Date: April 18, 1619

"when thy book (the history of thy life,) is torn, 1000. sins of thine own torn out of thy memory, wilt thou then present thy self thus defac'd and mangled to almighty God?"

— Donne, John (1572-1631)

Date: 1621

" It was (as I said) once well agreeing with reason, and there was an excellent consent and harmony between them, but that is now dissolved, they often jar, reason is overborne by passion: Fertur equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas, as so many wild horses run away with a chariot, and will not ...

— Burton, Robert (1577-1640)

Date: 1623

"[Conscience is a book] euen in thine owne bosome, written by the finger of God, in such plaine Characters, and so legible, that though thou knowest not a letter in any other booke, yet thou maist reade this"

— Carpenter, Richard (1575-1627)

Date: 1623

Conscience is "a noble and divine power and faculty, planted of God in the substance of a mans soule, working upon it selfe by reflection, and taking exact notice, as a Scribe or Register, and determingin Gods Viceroy and deputy, Judge of all that is in the mind, will, affections, actions, and th...

— Carpenter, Richard (1575-1627)

Date: 1623

"[C]onscience, as a Scribe or Notary, sitting in the closet of mans heart, with pen in hand, records and keepes a Catalogue, or Diary of all our Doings, of the time when, place where, the manner how they were performed, adn that so cleere and evident, that goe where we will, doe what we can, the ...

— Carpenter, Richard (1575-1627)

Date: 1627

A sinner cannot deny his sins, "being convinced by two evidences against which there can bee no exception, the booke of the Law, & the booke of his owne Conscience, the one shall show him what he should have done, & the other what he hath done."

— Hakewill, George (bap. 1578, d. 1649)

Date: 1627

"[A]gainst the book of the Law, hee shal be able to speake nothing, his Conscience telling him that the commaundements of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether: and for the booke of Conscience, against that he cannot possibly except, it being always in his owne keeping."

— Hakewill, George (bap. 1578, d. 1649)

Date: 1628

The young soul is likened to "a white paper unscribled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurr'd Note-booke"

— Earle, John (1601-1665)

Date: 1636

"So some have looked over their hearts by signs at one time, and have to their thinking found nothing but hypocrisy, unbelief, hardness, self-seeking; but not long after, examining their hearts again by the same signs, they have espied the image of God drawn fairly upon the table of their hearts."

— Goodwin, Thomas (1600-1680)

Date: 1639

"[T]he onely rule of our conscience, is the Law of God written in our hearts."

— Ames, William (1576-1633)