第六章：其中描述三种超性德行如何成全灵魂的三种能力，以及上述德行如何在这些能力中产生空无和黑暗。
Chapter VI: Wherein is described how it is the three theological virtues that perfect the three faculties of the soul, and how the said virtues produce emptiness and darkness within them.
既然现在必须努力说明〔直译：「把……带入」，如下文第 6 节开头。〕灵魂的三种能力——理智、记忆和意志——如何被带入这属灵之夜，而这夜是达到与神联合的方法，就必须首先在本章解释三种超性德行——信心、盼望和仁爱——如何产生同样的空无和黑暗；这三种德行以前述三种能力为其固有的超自然对象，灵魂也借它们按其诸能力与神联合，并且每一种德行都在自己的能力中产生这种空无和黑暗。信心在理智中；盼望在记忆中；仁爱在意志中。此后我们将继续描述，理智如何在信心的黑暗中得以成全；记忆如何在盼望的空无中得以成全；同样，意志必须如何借撤回并超脱一切情爱而被埋葬，好使灵魂能走向神。这样做以后，就会清楚看见：若灵魂要在这条属灵道路上安全行走，它多么需要经过这黑夜，倚靠这三种德行；这三种德行使它从一切事物中被倒空，并使它就这些事物而言变为黑暗。因为，正如我们所说，灵魂在今生不是借理解，也不是借享受，也不是借想象，更不是借任何感官与神联合；而只是按理智而言借信心，按记忆而言借盼望，按意志而言借爱。
Having now to endeavour to show how [Lit., to lead . . . into,’ as at the beginning of 6, below.] the three faculties of the soul – understanding, memory and will – are brought into this spiritual night, which is the means to Divine union, it is necessary first of all to explain in this chapter how the three theological virtues – faith, hope and charity – which have respect to the three faculties aforesaid as their proper supernatural objects, and by means whereof the soul is united with God according to its faculties, produce the same emptiness and darkness, each one in its own faculty. Faith, in the understanding; hope, in the memory; and charity, in the will. And afterwards we shall go on to describe how the understanding is perfected in the darkness of faith; and the memory in the emptiness of hope; and likewise how the will must be buried by withdrawing and detaching every affection so that the soul may journey to God. This done, it will be clearly seen how necessary it is for the soul, if it is to walk securely on this spiritual road, to travel through this dark night, leaning upon these three virtues, which empty it of all things and make it dark with respect to them. For, as we have said, the soul is not united with God in this life through understanding, nor through enjoyment, nor through the imagination, nor through any sense whatsoever; but only through faith, according to the understanding; and through hope, according to the memory; and through love, according to the will.
2. 这三种德行，正如我们所说，都在诸能力中造成空无：信心在理智中，就理解而言造成空无和黑暗；盼望在记忆中，造成对一切所拥有之物的空无；仁爱在意志中造成空无，并使其从一切情爱、从一切非神之物中的喜乐超脱。因为，正如我们所见，信心告诉我们理智所不能理解的事。因此圣保罗在希伯来书中这样说到它：Fides est sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium。希伯来书 xi, 1。我们将此解释为：信就是对所盼望之事有把握，对未见之事有确据；并且，虽然理智可以坚定而确实地同意这些事，它们却不是向理智显明的事，因为若它们向理智显明，就不再有信心。因此，信心虽然给理智带来确定性，却不给它带来清晰，而是带来幽暗。
2. These three virtues, as we have said, all cause emptiness in the faculties: faith, in the understanding, causes an emptiness and darkness with respect to understanding; hope, in the memory, causes emptiness of all possessions; and charity causes emptiness in the will and detachment from all affection and from rejoicing in all that is not God. For, as we see, faith tells us what cannot be understood with the understanding. Wherefore Saint Paul spoke of it ad Hebraeos after this manner: Fides est sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium. Hebrews xi, 1. This we interpret as meaning that faith is the substance of things hoped for; and, although the understanding may be firmly and certainly consenting to them, they are not things that are revealed to the understanding, since, if they were revealed to it, there would be no faith. So faith, although it brings certainty to the understanding, brings it not clearness, but obscurity.
3. 其次，至于盼望，毫无疑问，它使记忆就下面的事物和上面的事物而言，都成为空无而黑暗。因为盼望总是关系到尚未拥有之物；若已经拥有，就不再有盼望。因此圣保罗在罗马书中说：Spes, quae videtur, non est spes: nam quod videt quis, quid sperat? 罗马书 viii, 24。也就是说：看得见的盼望就不是盼望；人所看得见的——也就是人所拥有的——又何必盼望呢？所以，这德行也产生空无，因为它所关系的是未拥有之物，而不是已拥有之物。
3. Then, as to hope, there is no doubt but that it renders the memory empty and dark with respect both to things below and to things above. For hope always relates to that which is not possessed; for, if it were possessed, there would be no more hope. Wherefore Saint Paul says ad Romanos: Spes, quae videtur, non est spes: nam quod videt quis, quid sperat? Romans viii, 24. That is to say: Hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth – that is, what a man possesseth – how doth he hope for it? This virtue, then, also produces emptiness, for it has to do with that which is not possessed and not with that which is possessed.
4. 同样，仁爱也使意志就一切事物而言成为空无，因为它要求我们爱神超过一切；而这若不是我们从这些事物撤回情爱，好把情爱完全放在神身上，就不可能做到。因此基督借圣路加说：Qui non renuntiat omnibus quae possidet, non potest meus esse discipulus。圣路加 xiv, 33。意思是：凡不以意志撇下一切所有的，就不能作我的门徒。因此，这三种德行都使灵魂就一切事物而言处于幽暗和空无中。
4. Similarity, charity causes emptiness in the will with respect to all things, since it obliges us to love God above them all; which cannot be unless we withdraw our affection from them in order to set it wholly upon God. Wherefore Christ says, through Saint Luke: Qui non renuntiat omnibus quae possidet, non potest meus esse discipulus. St. Luke xiv, 33. Which signifies: He that renounces not all that he possesses with the will cannot be My disciple. And thus all these three virtues set the soul in obscurity and emptiness with respect to all things.
5. 在这里，我们必须思想我们的救赎主在圣路加第十一章所讲的比喻；其中他说，有一个朋友必须在半夜出去，向他的朋友求三个饼；路加 xi, 5。这些饼象征这三种德行。他说那人在半夜求这些饼，是为表示灵魂就一切事物而言处于黑暗中，必须按其诸能力获得这三种德行，并必须在这夜中借它们成全自己。在以赛亚书第六章，我们读到这位先知所见、在神两旁的两个撒拉弗，各有六个翅膀；用两个遮脚，表示为了神的缘故，使意志的情爱就一切事物而言变瞎并熄灭；用两个遮脸，表示理智在神面前的黑暗；又用另外两个飞翔。以赛亚书 vi, 2。这是表示盼望向未拥有之物飞翔，因为盼望被提升，超过一切它所能拥有的事物，无论下面的还是上面的，只神除外。
5. And here we must consider that parable which our Redeemer related in the eleventh chapter of Saint Luke, wherein He said that a friend had to go out at midnight in order to ask his friend for three loaves; Luke xi, 5. the which loaves signify these three virtues. And he said that he asked for them at midnight in order to signify that the soul that is in darkness as to all things must acquire these three virtues according to its faculties and must perfect itself in them in this night. In the sixth chapter of Isaias we read that the two seraphim whom this Prophet saw on either side of God had each six wings; with two they covered their feet, which signified the blinding and quenching of the affections of the will with respect to all things for the sake of God; and with two they covered their face, which signified the darkness of the understanding in the presence of God; and with the other two they flew. Isaias vi, 2. This is to signify the flight of hope to the things that are not possessed, when it is raised above all that it can possess, whether below or above, apart from God.
6. 因此，我们必须把灵魂的三种能力引向这三种德行，用每一种德行来赋予每一种能力形式，并且剥去它，使它就除这三种德行以外的一切事物而言处于黑暗中。这就是我们刚才称为主动的属灵之夜；因为灵魂尽自己所能而进入其中。正如在感官之夜中，我们曾描述一种方法，使感官的诸能力就欲望而言从其感性对象中被倒空，好使灵魂能从其道路的开端走向中点，〔或「中间」。参上文第一卷第二章。〕即信心；照样，在这属灵之夜中，靠神的恩惠，我们也将描述一种方法，借此使属灵诸能力从一切非神之物中被倒空并被炼净，并使它们就这三种德行而言处于黑暗中；正如我们所说，这三种德行是灵魂与神联合的方法和预备。
6. To these three virtues, then, we have to lead the three faculties of the soul, informing each faculty by each one of them, and stripping it and setting it in darkness concerning all things save only these three virtues. And this is the spiritual night which just now we called active; for the soul does that which in it lies in order to enter therein. And even as, in the night of sense, we described a method of voiding the faculties of sense of their sensible objects, with regard to the desire, so that the soul might go forth from the beginning of its course to the mean, [Or middle.’ Cf. Bk. I, chap. ii, above.] which is faith; even so, in this spiritual night, with the favour of God, we shall describe a method whereby the spiritual faculties are voided and purified of all that is not God, and are set in darkness concerning these three virtues, which, as we have said, are the means and preparation for the union of the soul with God.
7. 在这种方法中，可以找到完全的安全，抵御魔鬼的诡计，也抵御自爱及其分支的效力；自爱惯于以最微妙的方式欺骗并阻碍属灵人在路上前行，尤其当他们不知道如何超脱，并不知道如何按这三种德行治理自己时。因此，他们永远不能达到属灵之善的实体和纯净，也不能按他们本可行走的那样，走一条如此笔直而短捷的道路。
7. In this method is found all security against the crafts of the devil and against the efficacy of self-love and its ramifications, which is wont most subtly to deceive and hinder spiritual persons on their road, when they know not how to become detached and to govern themselves according to these three virtues; and thus they are never able to reach the substance and purity of spiritual good, nor do they journey by so straight and short a road as they might.
8. 必须注意，我现在特别是对那些已经开始进入默观状态的人说话；因为至于这如何关系初学者，必须稍微更详尽地加以描述，若神愿意，我们在第二卷论述这些初学者的特性时将会说明。
8. And it must be noted that I am now speaking particularly to those who have begun to enter the state of contemplation, because as far as this concerns beginners it must be described somewhat more amply, as we shall note in the second book, God willing, when we treat of the properties of these beginners.