I HAVE now to treat of the second part of this night—Faith— which is that wonderful means of reaching the goal, which is God, who is also to the soul, naturally, the third cause or division of this night. Faith, which is the mean, is compared to midnight, and thus it may be said, that faith is to the soul darker than the first part, and in a way also darker than the third: for the first part, that of the senses, is like the beginning of night, when sensible objects cease to be visible, and is not so far removed from light as midnight is. The third part, that which immediately precedes daybreak, is
57not so dark as midnight, because the clear light of morning is at hand: this is compared with God.
Though it is true, speaking after the manner of men, that God is as dark a night to the soul as faith, yet because God Himself, when the three divisions of this night are over —which are naturally the night of the soul — illumines it supernaturally with the rays of the Divine Light in a higher and nobler way, experimentally—which is the commencement of the perfect union which ensues when the third night is past—He may be said to be less dark. It is also more obscure than the first part, which relates to the lower, the sensual, nature of man, and consequently the more exterior. The second night, of faith, relates to the higher, to the rational, nature of man, and is therefore more interior and obscure, because it deprives us of the light of reason, or rather, to speak more clearly, makes it blind. Thus the comparison between it and midnight is made good: for that is the most obscure and most perfect portion of the night.
I have now to show how this second division—the night of faith—is the night of the spirit, as the first division is the night of sense, and then what those things are which are contrary to it, and how the soul is to be disposed actively for entering into it. For as to the passive way, which is the work of God, I reserve it for another opportunity —for the third book of this treatise.