It is through the belief of divine justice that natural order is ordained; as nature is perceived as a benign force that links all the spheres of existence, and is seen as a manifestation of God's will. .
Moreover, it is believed that the disruption of this order will bring upon unimaginable consequences from God on the individual responsible and those around him. This notion is primarily evident through Lear's abdication of his kingship and his opening declamation that "we have divided/ In three our kingdom." Thus, the abdication of his kingship is viewed as a "blasphemy" particularly from a king whose grandiose language speaks of "sacred radiance" and who affirms authority. It would have been recognized by the Jacobean audience that the horrifying denunciation of Lear's royal duties would be the denial of "propinquity and property of blood". Flattered by hyperbolic declarations of love, he fails to recognize that "Nor are they empty-hearted whose low sounds/ Reverb no hollowness". Furthermore, the terrifying "wrath" with which he dismisses both Cordelia and Kent would merely reinforce the Jacobean's impression of a "perverse self-will" and a ferocious egotism that will inexorably unleash horrifying consequences for him and society.
The inevitability of Lear's tragic downfall is assured by this divine justice, and the retributive power of "your justicers" will see Lear systematically stripped off his power, his dignity and his power. It is acknowledged that such suffering will be evidence of a moral order that confirms the strict connection between act and consequence. So the king and father who has "scorned the offices of nature" has made himself vulnerable to his "pelican daughters" and to the forces of providential justice. Furthermore, the middle movement of the play affirms the existence of a cosmic order as Lear's flawed perceptions are purged. A Jacobean audience would recognize that Lear gains redemption through penance.