Date: 1665

"And since Gold-smiths and Refiners are wont all the year long carefully to save the very sweepings of their Shops, because they may contain in them some Filings, or Dust of those richer Metals, Gold and Silver; I see not why a Christian may not be as careful, not to lose the Fragments and lesser...

— Boyle, Robert (1627-1691)

Date: 1667

"His Spir't burns up our dross, & makes our graces / Sparkle like furnace gold"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

"So are those minds that Gold admire do, / Barren, and haunted by the Devil too."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

"God hath large showres of vengeance to pour down / Upon our guilty souls, unless we rent / Our rocky hearts, and speedily repent."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

"Mans body is a box till death it split / The Soul, that precious Gem is kept in it."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

" But under God this Jewel [the Conscience], O esteem / For its great worth, as rarest next to Christ"

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

"Nor could they trouble us, but that our mind / Hath its own glory unto dross confin'd."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"So Age and Death by slow approches come, / And by that just inevitable doom / By which the Soul (her cloggy dross once gone) / Puts on Perfection, and resumes her own."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667, 1710

"And there are very few that have any true Kindness for it, and thou knowest not the Worth of that Jewel, thy Soul; but here, here's a Friend, if thou wilt but leave it with him, he will take care of it, it shall not be marted away for nothing."

— Janeway, James (1636?-1674)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Thus they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood / Praying; for from the mercy-seat above / Prevenient grace descending had removed / The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh / Regenerate grow instead."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)