694. 'Quidam enim in peccata prolapsi desperatione plus pereunt'; S. Aug. De Natura et Gratia, cap. 35; ed. Migne, xliv. 266. A similar passage occurs in his Sermo xx. § 3; ed. Migne, xxxviii. 140.
698. The words recreant and creant are, curiously enough, used in almost exactly the same sense; perhaps creant was merely an abbreviated form. To 'say creant' and to 'yield oneself recreant' meant, 'to own oneself beaten'; the original sense being, apparently, 'to entrust oneself to the enemy' or confide in him, in the hope of obtaining mercy; see the explanation of se recredere in Ducange, and recreant and recroire in Godefroy. The E. phrase is well illustrated by P. Plowman, B. xii. 193, xviii. 100; see creant in the New E. Dict.
700-703. Alluding to Luke xv. 7; xv. 24; xxiii. 42, 43.
705. From Matt. vii. 7, John xvi. 24; compare Wyclif's version.
707. by the morwe, early in the morning; cf. D. 755, H. 16; and D. 1080.
709. From Prov. viii. 17.
712. From the Vulgate, Eccl. vii. 19 (18):—'qui timet Deum, nihil negligit.'
714. Cf. G. 3, and note; also Ayenb. p. 31, ll. 20-22.
715. thurrok, the sink in which all evil things collect; see note to 363, above, p. 454.
716. Cf. Matt. xi. 12. The reference to 'David' is to Ps. lxxiii. 5 (lxxii. 5 in the Vulgate):—'In labore hominum non sunt, et cum hominibus non flagellabuntur.' See the comment on this verse in Hampole's Psalter, ed. Bramley; which concludes with:—'for with men whaym God drawes to heven thai sal nought be swongen, but with fendes in hell.'