Date: 1611

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts."

— Anonymous

Date: w. c. 54-8, trans. 1611

"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else exc...

— Paul of Tarsus (b.c. 10, d.c. 67)

Date: 1623

Conscience is "a noble and divine power and faculty, planted of God in the substance of a mans soule, working upon it selfe by reflection, and taking exact notice, as a Scribe or Register, and determingin Gods Viceroy and deputy, Judge of all that is in the mind, will, affections, actions, and th...

— Carpenter, Richard (1575-1627)

Date: 1623

"[C]onscience, as a Scribe or Notary, sitting in the closet of mans heart, with pen in hand, records and keepes a Catalogue, or Diary of all our Doings, of the time when, place where, the manner how they were performed, adn that so cleere and evident, that goe where we will, doe what we can, the ...

— Carpenter, Richard (1575-1627)

Date: 1647

"it is a firme Law and radicall principle in Nature engraven in the tables of the heart by the finger of God in creation for every living moving thing, wherein there is a breadth of life to defend, preserve, award, and deliver it selfe from all things hurtfull, destructive and obnoctious thereto ...

— Overton, Richard (fl. 1640-1663)

Date: 1693

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

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1699

"He will write his Laws in their hearts, and make them to walk in them."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

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: 1729

"Oh, let not the soft, penetrating plague / Creep on the freeborn mind! and working there, / With the sharp tooth of many a new-form'd want, / Endless, and idle all, eat out the heart / Of liberty; the high conception blast; / The noble sentiment, the impatient scorn / Of base subjection, and the...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)