Date: 1660, 1676

"Because he that endeavours to keep a good Conscience and hath an honest mind, besides that he will inquire after his duty sufficiently, he will be able to tell very much of it himself: for God will assist him, and cause that his own mind shall tell him more than seven Watchmen that sit in a Tow...

— Taylor, Jeremy (bap. 1613, 1667)

Date: 1660, 1676

"S. Bernard comparing the Conscience to a house, says it stands upon seven pillars."

— Taylor, Jeremy (bap. 1613, 1667)

Date: 1661

"[T]hrough ev'ry Breast [Faith] goes, invades their Minds, which, all-possest / By her great Deitie, each Soul doth prove / Her Altar, burning by her Sacred Love"

— Ross, Thomas (bap. 1620, d. 1675)

Date: 1664

"They are moved (if I may dare to say so) like the rational creatures of the Almighty Poet, who walk at liberty, in their own opinion, because their fetters are invisible; when, indeed, the prison of their will is the more sure for being large; and instead of an absolute power over their actions,...

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1670

"Thus, like a captive in an isle confined, / Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1677

"Prepare thy heart, / For that's the room / Where God must come:"

— Speed, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. 1679?)

Date: 1677

"So of the Soul the saying may be true, / That e're it bids its Cabinet adieu, / Four inches is the most that it doth keep / Betwixt its life and an eternal sleep"

— Speed, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. 1679?)

Date: 1678

"And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room, / Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1681

"In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. / A fiery Soul, which working out its way, / Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay; / And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1682

"The Body is but the Prison, or the Clog of the Mind; subjected to Punishments, Robberies, Diseases; but the Mind is Sacred, and Spiritual, and Liable to no Violence."

— L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704)