Date: 1660, 1676

"That is, of that which God hath declared to be good or evil respectively, the conscience is to be informed. God hath taken care that his laws shall be published to all his subjects, he hath written them where they must needs read them, not in Tables of stone or Phylacteries on the forehead, but ...

— Taylor, Jeremy (bap. 1613, 1667)

Date: November 9, 1662; 1663

"Aristotle indeed affirms the Mind to be at first a meer Rasa tabula; and that these Notions are not ingenite, and imprinted by the finger of Nature, but by the latter and more languid impressions of sense; being onely the Reports of observation, and the Result of so many repeated Experiments."

— South, Robert (1634-1716)

Date: 1664

"Thus they also trace figures in these gaps, which correspond to those of the objects. At first they do this less easily and perfectly than they do on gland H, but gradually they do it better and better, as their action becomes stronger and lasts longer, or is repeated more often. That is why the...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1665

Minds are "like smooth paper never writ upon, / When folded up, by some impression / Marks will remain it never had before, / And ne're return to former smoothness more."

— Howard, Sir Robert (1626-1698)

Date: 1667

"Grace engraves holiness unto / The Lord upon the heart, in character, / Indelible"

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

Date: 1667

"A pure heart hath a golden Frontispice, / It loves fair vertue, and abhors foul vice."

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

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"[T]he law of faith, / Working through love, upon their hearts shall write, / To guide them in all truth."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force / On every conscience; laws which none shall find / Left them inrolled, or what the Spirit within / Shall on the heart engrave."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1671

"[C]onfirm it within ... With my hand seal & heart--"

— Howard, Edward (bap. 1624, d. 1712)

Date: 1672?

"Our Hearts are Paper, Beauty is the Pen, / Which writes our Loves, and blots 'em out agen"

— Sedley, Sir Charles (1639-1701)