BOOK THE SECOND
Wherein is described the nature of dark night and how necessary it is to pass through it to Divine union;
and in particular this book describes the dark night of sense, and desire, and the evils which these work in the soul.
Of the Ascent of Mount Carmel
Wherein is treated the proximate means of ascending to union with God, which is faith; and wherein
therefore is described the second part of this night, which, as we said, belongs to the spirit, and is contained in the second stanza, which is as follows. __________________________________________________________________
Second Stanza
Chapter 3
How faith is dark night to the soul. This is proved with arguments and quotations and figures from Scripture.
3. Even so is faith with respect to the soul; it tells us of things which we have never seen or understood, nor have we seen or understood aught that resembles them, since there is naught that resembles them at all. And thus we have
no light of natural knowledge concerning them, since that which we are told of them bears no relation to any sense of ours; we know it by the ear alone, believing that which we are taught, bringing our natural light into subjection and treating it as if it were not. For, as Saint Paul says, Fides ex auditu (faith comes by hearing the Word). As though he were to say: Faith is not knowledge which enters by any of the senses, but is only the consent given by the soul to that which enters
through the ear.
