A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

4. Ingenuous shame. Sin is in it self a shameful thing, and therefore when it is confessed upon a solemn day, it ought to be with shame. As Ezra hearing of the sin of Israel after their return from their captivity, he sate astonied until the Evening, and then riseth up, and rends the mantle, and speaks to God: O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee, Ezra 9.5. And to us belongeth confusion of face, said Daniel in his fasting, Dan. 9.8. Two things cause shame. One is to act contrary to our own reason, an I the other is, to act unsuitably to another's kindness. The one is absurd, and the other is disingenuous, and both may cause shame. And there are both these in sin, especially when committed with allowance, for right reason doth condemn it, and it is a high violation of the law of kindness, to return evil where we receive all our good.

4. Ingenuous shame. Sin is in it self a shameful thing, and therefore when it is confessed upon a solemn day, it ought to be with shame. As Ezra hearing of the sin of Israel after their return from their captivity, he sate astonied untill the Evening, and then riseth up, and rends the mantle, and speaks to God: O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my faee unto thee, Ezra 9.5. And to us belongeth confusion of face, said Daniel in his fasting, Dan. 9.8. Two things cause shame. One is to act contrary to our own reason, an I the other is, to act unsuitably to another's kindness. The one is absurd, and the other is disingenuous, and both may cause shame. And there are both these in sin, especially when committed with allowance, for right reason doth condemn it, and it is a high violation of the law of kindness, to return evil where we receive all our good.

5. Inward purity, by which I mean not a total freedom from sin, but a freedom from a corrupt end, and the secret allowance of sin in our fasting. Either of these will spoil the fast.