The Religion of Nature Delineated · Chapter
V: Truths Relating to the Deity: Of His Existence, Perfection, Providence, etc. explained
This chapter establishes the existence of a First Cause or Deity through a chain of causation, argues for His perfection and unity, and defends the concept of divine providence—both general and particular—against objections based on the app
What happens
This chapter establishes the existence of a First Cause or Deity through a chain of causation, argues for His perfection and unity, and defends the concept of divine providence—both general and particular—against objections based on the apparent inequities of worldly fortune.
Themes in this chapter
Natural Religion and the Deity
The chapter systematically proves the existence, perfection, and providence of God through reason and natural theology.
Truth and Reason
Reason is the primary tool for discovering truths about the Deity, and the chapter emphasizes logical deduction from cause to First Cause.
Moral Good and Evil
The discussion of providence ties directly to moral desert, addressing why the virtuous suffer and the wicked prosper.
Characters to notice
- A Man
The authorial voice reasoning through the existence and attributes of the Deity.
Key passages
“Where there is a subordination of causes and effects, there must necessarily be a cause in nature prior to the rest, uncaused.”
If things depend on each other in a chain, there must be a first cause that depends on nothing else.
This is the core cosmological argument for God's existence.
“If there may be one, it will unavoidably follow that there is one: because in the description of providence... nothing is supposed with respect to particular cases but that they should be provided for in such a manner as will at last agree best with reason; and to allow that this may be done, and yet say that it is not done, implies a blasphemy that creates horror.”
If particular providence is possible, it must actually exist, because denying it would accuse God of unreasonableness.
The author argues from possibility to actuality regarding divine care for individuals.
“We are not always certain who are good, who wicked. If we trust to fame and reports, these may proceed, on the one hand, from partial friendship, or flattery; on the other, from ill-natured surmises and constructions of things, envy, or malice.”
Human judgments of virtue and vice are unreliable, so apparent injustices in the world may be due to our ignorance.
This responds to the objection that the wicked prosper and the good suffer.