Date: 1677

"Or else unto those Birds (aspiring) rare, / The Soul contemplative I may compare, / Of whom King David worthily attests, / That by the Holy Altar build their Nests: / So Meditation's said in holy Story, / To build her Nest about the Throne of Glory."

— Speed, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. 1679?)

Date: 1684

"For certainly there must be some change in our mind when we have some thoughts and then others, and, in fact, ideas of things we are not actually thinking about are in our minds as the shape of Hercules is in rough marble."

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Date: 1693

"When Reason with her Robes ascends the Throne, / And wisely all my scatter'd Thoughts calls home, / The Messenger is so divine, / Unto her Laws I must resign."

— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)

Date: 1693

"For should I let these Thoughts but rove / They'd fix upon Tyrannick Love."

— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)

Date: 1693

Thoughts may "transcend all the Bounds of Air, / And like a blazing Comet ... inflame my Sphere."

— Hawkshaw, Benjamin (1671/2-1738)

Date: 1692, 1702

"The Soul of Man comes into this World at least as Ill-informed of the Affairs of Grace, as those of Nature. It is in all respects, a Rasa tabula, a meer Blank, and hath need of being fill'd with every thing"

— Jurieu, Pierre (1637-1713); Fleetwood, William, Trans.

Date: 1719-25

"A child, which is incapable of resisting grace, and is as it were a rasa tabula before God, affords a lively representation of that which grace is able to effect even in the heart of an old sinner."

— Quesnel, Pasquier (1634-1719); Russel, Richard (1685-1756)

Date: 1729

"Secondly, 'Tis just matter of wonder & astonishment that ever one spark of faith was kindled in such an heart as thine is; [end page 124] an heart which had no predisposition or inclination in the least to believe; yea, it was not rasa tabula, like clean paper, void of any impression of f...

— Flavell, John (bap. 1630, d. 1691)

Date: 1682-1735

"I am this crumb of dust which is design'd / To make my Pen unto thy Praise alone, / And my dull Phancy I would gladly grinde / Unto an Edge on Zions Pretious Stone."

— Taylor, Edward (1642-1729)

Date: 1742

"He binds my Name upon his Arm, / And seals it on his Heart."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)