Date: 1596

"In this respect [conscience] may fitly be compared to a notarie, or a register that hath alwaies the penne in his hand, to note and record whatsoeuer is saide or done: who also because he keepes the rolles and records of the court, can tell what hath bin said and done many hundred yeares past."

— Perkins, William (1558-1602)

Date: 1599

"This Scripture [Proverbs 18:14] is not only worthie to be graven in steele with the pen of an Adamant, and to be written in letters of gold: but also to bee laid up and registred by the finger of Gods spirit in the tables of our hearts."

— Greenham, Richard (e. 1540s-1594)

Date: 1599

"have wee not a great advantage, that have within our selves while wee live here, a Count-booke and Inventorie of all the crimes that wee shall be accused of, either at the houre of our death, or at the Great day of Judgement"

— King James I (1566-1625)

Date: c. 1603

"On waxen tablets you cannot write anything new until you rub out the old. With the mind it is not so; there you cannot rub out the old till you have written in the new."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1606

To properly prepare a soul for God, one must "qualify it, cleanse it, strip it, and denude it of all opinion, belief, inclination, make it like a white sheet of paper, dead to itself and the world, so that God may live and operate in it."

— Charron, Pierre (1541-1603)

Date: 1606

"There is a ground or principle written in every mans heart in the world, none excepted, that there is a God."

— Perkins, William (1558-1602)

Date: 1606

An "evill and hinderance to wisdome ... is the confusion and captivitie of his passions, and turbulent affections, whereof he must disfurnish and free himselfe, to the end he may be emptie and neate, like a white paper, and be made a subject more fit to receive tincture and impressions of wisdome...

— Charron, Pierre (1541-1603); Lennard, Sampson (d. 1633)

Date: 1611

The law of nature is "written in the hearts of all men"

— Sclater, William (bap. 1575, d. 1627)

Date: 1611

In the Judgment "the register bookes of all mens consciences [shall] bee opened up, and laide abroad, and the great register of God his predestination, & booke of life shall be opened, and made patent, and the dead shal bee judged according to their workes, written and registred in their conscien...

— Napier, John, of Merchiston (1550-1617)

Date: 1614

"Now, then in judgement, so are workes lookt on, as collation alwaies must bee of the bookes, to see if our names be written in the booke of life, as assurance of life and joyfull peace are written in our consciences."

— Forbes, Patrick, of Corse (1564-1635)