Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Thus they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood / Praying; for from the mercy-seat above / Prevenient grace descending had removed / The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh / Regenerate grow instead."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Him there they found / Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve, / Assaying by his devilish art to reach / The organs of her fancy, and with them forge / Illusions, as he list, phantasms and dreams."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1673

"[Y]our whole frame [is] as innocent, and holy, as if your being were all soul and spirit, without the gross allay of flesh and bloud"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1675

"Our Poet hope's you'll not expect to day, / T'have all his down-right thoughts drest up so gay, / If his Coyn chinks too much, you'll doubt allay."

— Fane, Sir Francis (d. 1691)

Date: 1675

"Work, work, my hearts of Gold."

— Duffett, Thomas (fl. 1674-1678); William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Date: 1675

"And tears run trickling down her face, / Would e'en have mov'd a heart of brass."

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687); Lucian (c.120- d. after 180)

Date: 1677

"I wou'd ha' rent / With my just hands that Rock, that Marble heart; / I wou'd have div'd through Seas of bloud to find it, / To tear the cruel Quarry from its Center."

— Lee, Nathaniel (1653-1692)

Date: 1678

"[Y]et even such a soul, may like a Diamond that's set too narrow in the finest Gold, straiten its lustre."

— Howard, Edward (bap. 1624, d. 1712)

Date: 1679

God "can wash off the soil [from the soul], refine the Ore, / And make it shine fairer than heretofore."

— Keach, Benjamin (1640-1704)

Date: 1679

One may be "from all base alloy refin'd, / "More to resemble the Eternal Mind,"

— Woodford, Samuel (1636-1700)