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: 1693

"Needless was written law, where none opprest; / The law of man was written in his breast."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1699

"Those that were without a Law were a Law unto themselves, doing by nature the things contained in the Law, which shows the Law written in their hearts"

— Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

Date: 1707

"There [in a softer mind] shall his sacred spirit dwell, / And deep engrave his law, / And every motion of our souls / To swift obedience draw."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1718

"A thousand little Nerves She sends / Quite to our Toes, and Fingers Ends; / And These in Gratitude again / Return their Spirits to the Brain; / In which their Figure being printed / (As just before, I think, I hinted) / Alma inform'd can try the Case, / As She had seen upon the Place. // Thus, w...

— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

Date: 1720

"For as in the Body Politick, the Prince, (whom Seneca calls the Soul of the Commonwealth.) receiveth no Passages of State, or false Ones, where there is Negligence, or Disability in those subjectate Inquirers, (whom Xenophon terms the Eyes and Ears of Kings.) In like Manner the Soul of Man being...

— Hales, John (1584-1656)

Date: 1741

"Early instruct your tender Youth / In Heav'n's unerring Law of Truth, / Engrave it on their Mind."

— Duck, Stephen (1705-1756)

Date: 1745

"They are plainly and explicitly published; easily understood; and in fair and legible characters writ in every man's heart; and the wisdom, reason, and necessity of them are readily discerned."

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1759

"The way to be happy is to live according to nature, in obedience to that universal and unalterable law with which every heart is originally impressed; which is not written on it by precept, but engraven by destiny, not instilled by education, but infused at our nativity."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1762

"His Spirit send into our hearts, / Engraving on our inward parts / The living law of holiest love"

— Wesley, John and Charles