Date: 1660

"Things that the least of drossy mixture hold, / Last longest; my Hearts flames Ætherial be, / More pure than seven times refined Gold / Than Cedar's flames: rays of a Deitie / They are."

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1661

"GRACE though she could have with one single dart / The stubborn Will pierc'd th'row her Steely heart."

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1664

"Their Hearts are as hard, as Iron too, / As tough, but not so cold."

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

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

"It is attracting Love, its nature's such, / 'Tis like the Loadstone; hadst thou once a touch, / 'Twould make thy Iron-heart with speed to move, / Nay, cleave to him in bonds of purest Love."

— Keach, Benjamin (1640-1704)

Date: 1679

"No Orator on Earth like him could speak, / So powerfully, and sweet enough to break / And melt a breast of Steel, or heart of Stone"

— Keach, Benjamin (1640-1704)

Date: 1679

"With him [Chirst] I live, his word I hear, yet feel / No yielding to him in this heart of Steel."

— Slater, Samuel (c.1629-1704)

Date: 1681

"Some livelier spark of heaven, and more refined / From earthly dross, fills the great poet's mind."

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1685

"One would have thought such melting Words / Should break an Heart of Steel."

— Mason, John (1646?-1694)

Date: 1685

A "heaven-born mind" may have "no dross to purge from [its] rich ore"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)