John Donne on the Joy of God

John Donne understood joy, perhaps because he understood suffering. Some of his most important works were written in the context of his own grief and illness. Writing on 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice always"), Donne wrote,

Because it is alway, it must be in him who is alwaies, yesterday and to day, and the same for ever, Joy in God, Joy in the Holy Ghost . . . not onely the Joy which he gives, that's here, but the Joy which he is.

No, those are not typing mistakes on my part. That is how Donne wrote. He also quoted from a wide variety of sources. In Latin. Keep reading, especially to the fabulous line at the end of this paragraph:

Rejoyce in the Lord always, says the Apostle; and lest it should admit any interruption, he repeates it, Iterum dico gaudete, Againe I say rejoyce, But still in the Lord. . . . He that is settled in God, centred in God, Laetitiae fontem, voluptatis radicem lucratus est. They are all considerable words; Lucratus est, he hath purchased something which he did not inherit, he hath acquired something which was not his before, and what? Fontem laetitiae; 'tis joy, else it were nothing: for what is wealth if sickness take away the joy of that? Or what is health, if imprisonment take away the joy of that? Or what is liberty, if poverty take away the joy of that? but he hath joy, and not a Cistern but a fountain, the fountaine of joy, that rejoyces in God: He carries it higher in the other Metaphore; he hath radicem voluptatis; a man may have some fruit, and not enough, but if he have joy in God, he hath radicem voluptatis, if we may dare to translate it so, (and in a spirituall sense we may) it is a voluptuous thing to rejoyce in God.

Donne argued that only Christ's joy would allow us to "rejoice always." Read it slowly, for the thoughts are rich.

Any Prince, any Counsellor, any Prelate, any Generall, any Discoverer, any that goes in any way of joy, and glory, If they rejoyce in their own names, their own wisdome, their own strength, they shall not rejoyce all the day, but they shall be benighted with darke sadness, before their days end; And their sunne shall set at noon too, as the Prophet Amos speaks. And therefore that shall be Christs expressing of that joy, at the last day, Enter into thy Masters Joy, and leave the joy of Servants (though of good Servants) behind thee; for thou shalt have a better Joy then that, Thy Masters Joy.
It is time to end; but as long as the glasse hath a gaspe, as long as I have one, I would breathe in this ayre, in this perfume, in this breath of heaven, the contemplation of this Joy. Blessed is that man, says David, that knowes the joyfull sound. . . . How infinitely shall this Joy be enlarged in loving God, so far above our selves. . . . Wee have but this to add: Heaven is called by many pretious names; Life, Simply and absolutely there is no life but that. And Kingdome: Simply, absolutely there is no Kingdom, that is not subordinate to that. And Sabbatum ex Sabbato, A Sabbath flowing into a Sabbath, a perpetuall Sabbath: but the Name that should enamour us most, is that, that it is Satietas gaudiorum; fulnesse of Joy. Fulnesse that needeth no addition; Fullnesse, that admitteth no leake. And then though in the Schoole we place Blessednesse, In visione, in the sight of God, yet the first thing that this sight of God shall produce in us (for that shall produce the Reformation of the Image of God, in us, and it shall produce our glorifying of God) but the first thing that the seeing of God shall produce in us, is Joy. The measure of our seeing of God is the measure of Joy. See him here in his Blessings, and you shall joy in those blessings here; and when you come to see him Sicuti est, in his Essence, then you shall have this Joy in Essence, and in fulnesse; of which, God of his goodnesse give us such an earnest here, as may binde to us that inheritance hereafter, which his Sonne our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.