Goodwill Hunting in Herbert’s “Unkindnesse” (GH #36)

[Yes, I'm back! My blog has been in sleep mode for quite a while, and in the meantime I've gotten married, traveled to at least 5 countries, and had some health problems, so it's been an eventful 3 years....]

Goodwill Hunting in Herbert’s “Unkindnesse”

As I was looking over George Herbert’s poem “Unkindnesse” the other day, a phrase in the last stanza struck me as paradoxical. Here’s a summary of the poem (the entire poem appears at the end of this blog post):

After opening by asking the Lord to help him be a better friend, the poet spends the first 4 stanzas comparing the kindnesses he has shown his friends or family to his lack of kindness towards his Lord. He wants to have good intentions toward his friends (st. 1), to protect their reputations (st. 2), to provide financial help for them when needed (st. 3), and to further them in their careers (st. 4). Each stanza concludes with a variation on the admission, “I would not use a friend, as I use Thee.”

This pattern is followed in the last stanza by an acknowledgement that God has done more for him than any of his friends and is, in fact, not only his Friend, but his Savior. Yet the poet continues to treat his Lord worse than any friend and even, he confesses, worse than any foe:

Yet can a friend what thou hast done fulfill?

O write in brasse, My God upon a tree

                                       His bloud did spill

                        Onely to purchase my good-will.

Yet use I not my foes, as I use Thee. (lines 21-25)

In the italicized section, Herbert wants the reminder of God’s sacrifice to be recorded permanently for his own reflection, written in brass: “My God upon a tree / His blood did spill / only to purchase my good-will” (ll. 22-24). But, wait, isn’t goodwill by definition freely given, not bought?

Crucifix in Bayeux Cathedral, Normandy, France

This question led to a bit of digging, first through the Oxford English Dictionary, which confirmed my understanding of “goodwill” as a friendly, supportive, benevolent, or cooperative attitude towards someone, also eagerness, readiness, or “willing consent” (def. 2a-b, 3a-b).¹

William Gouge’s 1622 treatise Of Domestical Duties addresses how servants are directed by Scripture to serve with “Good will. Under which are comprised 1. cheerfulness, 2. readiness, 3. diligence, 4. faithfulness” (The Seventh Treatise: “Duties of Servants” sect. 1, expositing Ephesians 5:5-8).²

If my ready, eager, cooperative, and even cheerful attitude is purchased, is it not then false or forced or tainted? How, then, can it still be called good will? Is there perhaps another way of understanding this, if not paradoxical, at least enigmatic, phrase in Herbert’s poem?

For instance, what if “good-will” is not something the speaker gives, but something that is given to him in this transaction? According to the Herbert concordance, Herbert’s only use of the compound word “good-will” (or “goodwill”) in his writings occurs here, in “Unkindnesse,” so Herbert’s corpus doesn’t help with understanding this particular word choice.³

I propose two options in thinking of “good-will” as something that is purchased for and given to the speaker here. Option 1: Herbert leaves the compound word separated by a hyphen, subtly keeping “good” and “will” separate. “Good” is but a modifier of “will.” Christ’s blood purchased the speaker’s good will, as opposed to his bad will.

John Calvin is helpful for the theology here. J. Todd Billings explains this doctrine from Calvin’s perspective: “Human nature [before Adam’s Fall] was originally good, and the created nature is restored and fulfilled through redemption in Christ,” which “heals and restores the original ‘good will’ and ‘good nature’ of Adam” (Billings 47).⁴ In other words, Christ provided for Herbert’s speaker a redeemed will, replacing his fallen bad-will with a redeemed “good-will.”

Option 2: Christ’s sacrifice purchased the goodwill of God towards the redeemed speaker.  A well-known Scripture verse illustrating this concept of God’s goodwill is Luke 2:14, which I reproduce from the 1560 Geneva Bible, a version Herbert was familiar with: “Glory be to God in the high heavens, and peace in earth, & towards men good will” (my underline). The note on this passage in the Geneva explains better the theology Herbert’s poem may be presenting: “The free mercy & goodwill of God, which is the fountain of our peace and felicity, & is chiefly declared to the elect.”⁵

Because the spilling of Christ’s blood on the cross purchased the speaker, he is one of the elect, and therefore a recipient of God’s goodwill in the sense of favor or  “benevolence” (OED def. 2a.), but also of piety or virtue (OED def. 1). Herbert’s speaker now has the goodness or virtue of Christ, his sin having been traded for Christ’s righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In whichever of the above senses, Jesus Christ purchased the goodwill of his foes (cf. Romans 5:10), among whom the speaker had formerly been included. How, then, the poem asks, could one who is the recipient of God’s goodwill use his Lord with unkindness?

¹ The Oxford English Dictionary is the most helpful resource for word studies in historical works because it provides dated quotations for minutely categorized uses of a word. This allows scholars of a historical work to check what a word could have meant at a particular time.

² William Gouge was a pastor whose lengthy Of Domestical Duties (in large part a practical exposition of the book of Ephesians) was published in 1622, during the years of Herbert’s career at Cambridge.

³ Di Cesare, Mario A., and Rigo Mignani. A Concordance to the Complete Writings of George Herbert (Cornell UP, 1977).

⁴ Billings, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift: The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ, Oxford UP, 2007. Many scholars have demonstrated that Herbert was quite familiar with and influenced by Calvin’s works. Daniel Doerksen’s Picturing Religious Experience: George Herbert, Calvin, & the Scriptures (U of Delaware P, 2011) is particularly helpful. 

⁵ I have modernized the spelling of the Geneva Bible quotes.

A reminder to students (and others) that all written work contained in my blog, unless otherwise indicated, is my intellectual property and to be cited accordingly. Thank you. --JN

“Unkindnesse”

LOrd, make me coy and tender to offend:

In friendship, first I think, if that agree,

                                       Which I intend,

                        Unto my friends intent and end.

I would not use a friend, as I use Thee.

If any touch my friend, or his good name,

It is my honour and my love to free

                                       His blasted fame

                        From the least spot or thought of blame.

I could not use a friend, as I use Thee.

My friend may spit upon my curious¹ floor:

Would he have gold? I lend it instantly;

                                       But let the poore,

                        And thou within them, starve at doore.

I cannot use a friend, as I use Thee.

When that my friend pretendeth to a place,²

I quit my interest, and leave it free:

                                       But when they grace

                        Sues for my heart, I thee displace,

Nor would I use a friend, as I use Thee.

Yet can a friend what thou hast done fulfill?

O write in brasse, My God upon a tree

                                       His bloud did spill

                        Onely to purchase my good-will.

Yet use I not my foes, as I use Thee.