Date: 1627

A sinner cannot deny his sins, "being convinced by two evidences against which there can bee no exception, the booke of the Law, & the booke of his owne Conscience, the one shall show him what he should have done, & the other what he hath done."

— Hakewill, George (bap. 1578, d. 1649)

Date: 1627

"[A]gainst the book of the Law, hee shal be able to speake nothing, his Conscience telling him that the commaundements of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether: and for the booke of Conscience, against that he cannot possibly except, it being always in his owne keeping."

— Hakewill, George (bap. 1578, d. 1649)

Date: 1628

The young soul is likened to "a white paper unscribled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurr'd Note-booke"

— Earle, John (1601-1665)

Date: 1633

"The mind, you know is like a Table-Book"

— Donne, John (1572-1631)

Date: 1636

"So some have looked over their hearts by signs at one time, and have to their thinking found nothing but hypocrisy, unbelief, hardness, self-seeking; but not long after, examining their hearts again by the same signs, they have espied the image of God drawn fairly upon the table of their hearts."

— Goodwin, Thomas (1600-1680)

Date: 1639

"[T]he onely rule of our conscience, is the Law of God written in our hearts."

— Ames, William (1576-1633)

Date: 1639

"There are some principles so cleare, and written in the hearts of all men, that they cannot erre to obey and practise them."

— Ames, William (1576-1633)

Date: 1639

"[T]he Law of Nature" of "the Law of God ... is naturally written in the hearts of all men."

— Ames, William (1576-1633)

Date: MS. 1640, 1650

"[T]here is no doubt, if the true doctrine concerning the law of nature, and the properties of a body politic, and the nature of law in general, were perspicuously set down, and taught in the Universities, but that young men, who come thither void of prejudice, and whose minds are yet as white pa...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: MS. 1640, 1650

"For certainly men are not otherwise so unequal in capacity as the evidence is unequal of what is taught by the mathematicians, and what is commonly discoursed of in other books: and therefore if the minds of men were all of white paper, they would almost equally be disposed to acknowledge whatso...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)