Date: 1660, 1676

"For the conscience is a Judge and a Guide, a Monitor and a Witness, which are the offices of the knowing, not of the chusing faculty."

— Taylor, Jeremy (bap. 1613, 1667)

Date: 1665

"The Understanding is to order all the inferiour services of the lower Faculties; but yet it is to do this only as a lawful Master, and not as a Tyrant."

— Hooke, Robert (1635-1703)

Date: 1667

"Conscience is Christs Vicar in mans heart, / It keeps Court there, and acts the Judges part"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"But know that in the soul / Are many lesser faculties, that serve / Reason as chief; among these Fancy next / Her office holds; of all external things / Which the five watchful senses represent, / She forms imaginations, aery shapes, / Which Reason, joining or disjoining, frames / All what...

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1675

"Please to consult the Steward of your Soul, / And Ruler of your Senses, Your wise Reason."

— Anonymous; Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1680

"O, 'tis confess'd; / And howsoe're my Tongue has plaid the Braggart, / She Reigns more fully in my Soul than ever: / She Garrisons my Breast, and Mans against me / Even my own Rebel thoughts, with thousand Graces, / Ten thousand Charms, and new discover'd Beauties."

— Lee, Nathaniel (1653-1692)

Date: 1682

"Every Man has a Judge, and a Witness within himself, of all the Good, and lll that he Does; which inspires us with great Thoughts, and administers to us wholsome Counsels."

— L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704)

Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"As soon as ever the Parts begin to be form'd by Nature, this Animal and active Principle begins to exert its Heat and Force, being lodged in the Heart as in the Centre of the Body, from whence, as the Vessels begin also to be form'd, it distributes it self towards the extreme Regions, communicat...

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Yet I suspect, I say, that this way of speaking of Faculties has misled many into a confused Notion of so many distinct Agents in us, which had their several Provinces and Authorities, and did command, obey, and perform several Actions, as so many distinct Beings; which has been no small occasio...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1691

"No Servants on my beck attendant stand, / Yet are my Passions all at my command; / Reason within me shall sole Ruler be, / And every Sense shall wear her Livery."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)