8199. 'The whole night' means in the state of obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of 'night' as a state of obscurity so far as the truth and good of faith are concerned, dealt with in 1712, 6000. Here 'night' is used to mean the obscurity immediately following temptations, for those who are delivered from them pass into obscurity first before moving on into clearness. The falsities and evils that were introduced by the hells still cling to them for quite some time and are dissipated only gradually.
