Date: 1700

"As softest metals are not slow to melt, / And pity soonest runs in gentle minds:"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1706

"Till hard despair wring from the tyrant's soul / The iron tears out."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1706

"The Marble Heart groans with an inward Wound: / Blaspheming Souls of harden'd Steel / Shriek out amaz'd at the new Pangs they feel, / And dread the Eccho's of the Sound."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1706

"Affliction is the Fire, wherein their Mind / From Sin, and drossy Mixtures is refin'd."

— Baker, Daniel (c. 1654-1723)

Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"[N]o alloy / Of Flesh" can destroy the "sprightly Beauties" of the soul "Nor Death nor Fate can snatch the lasting Joy. / Through ev'ry Limb the active Spirit flows;
Diffusing Life and Vigour as it goes, / But is it self unmixt, and free from Dross"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"Black Night comes on, and interrupts the Day, / E'er it can chase the Mists and Fogs away; / The Dregs of Flesh and Drossy Lees, o'errun / The Soul, and weigh the strugling Spirit down:"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1714, 1723

"Tormenting Doubts my troubled Soul perplex, / But my steel'd Breast no certain Fears can vex."

— Hughes, Jabez (1685-1731)