"The Pulley" establishes God's generosity with the image that drives the poem, wherein God bestows the various blessings on his human creation. At the same time, however, it is worth noting that this act of generosity, while great, is not without its limits: in the poem, he does withhold one blessing from mankind: "rest." This is a detail worth thinking carefully about, in terms of its implications and why a benevolent, generous God would insist on making such an exception.

Generally speaking, though, God's beneficence in this poem is great, as he is depicted as essentially responsible for all that is good and ennobling about the human condition, which is offered as a gift to his creation. And indeed, if you were to compare this act of charity to the divine characterizations you'll often find through much of ancient mythology, this sense of generosity becomes all the more striking. Consider, for example, in Greek mythology, where Zeus hoards away fire, inflicting punishment on humanity for the actions of its patron, Prometheus, not to mention the story of Pandora, who is created as a trap, one intended to spread misery to humankind.

In this sense, that God would act this way, for the benefit of his creation, should be understood entirely as a voluntary act, one which further illustrates his essential goodness (at least as Herbert would understand it).